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ALICE  AND  LEONARD 

BLOOMFIELD 


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A  DREAM  OF  JOHN  BALL 


A   DREAM    OF 

JOHN  BALL. 

BY 
WILLIAM  MORRIS 


Portland,  Maine 
THCmAS  3.  'MOSHE\ 

Mdccccij 


This  First  F.ditien  ou 
yan  Gelder  paper  con- 
sists of  92  5  copies. 


SRLF 
URL 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  Dream  of  John  Ball  : 

I  THE    MEN    OF   KENT        •           •           •  3 

II  THE   MAN    FROM    ESSEX            .  I3 

III  THEY   MEET   AT  THE  CROSS  23 

IV  THE   VOICE  OF   JOHN    BALL   .           .  28 
V  THEY   HEAR  TIDINGS   OF    BATTLE 

AND   MAKE  THEM    READY  .      43 

VI      THE  BAITLE  AT  THE  TOWNSHIP'S 

END 54 

VII      MORE   WORDS   AT   THE   CROSS  .      70 

VIII      SUPPER   AT   WILL   GREEN's     .  .      77 

IX      BETWIXT    THE    LIVING    AND    THE 

DEAD 85 

X      THOSE    TWO    TALK   OF    THE    DAYS 

TO   COME 95 

XI      HARD  IT  IS  FOR  THE  OLD  WORLD 

TO   SEE   THE   NEW  .    IO4 


CONTENTS 

FAGB 

XII  ILL  WOULD  CHANGE  BE  AT  WHILES 
WERE  IT  NOT  FOR  THE  CHANGE 
BEYOND  THE   CHANGE  •    "3 


A  King's  Lesson. 


133 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN  BALL 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN  BALL 


THE   MEN   OF   KENT 


SOMETIMES  I  am  rewarded  for  fretting 
myself  so  much  about  present  matters 
by  a  quite  unasked-for  pleasant  dream.  I 
mean  when  I  am  asleep.  This  dream  is  as  it 
were  a  present  of  an  architectural  peep-show. 
I  see  some  beautiful  and  noble  building  new 
made,  as  it  were  for  the  occasion,  as  clearly 
as  if  I  were  awake ;  not  vaguely  or  absurdly, 
as  often  happens  in  dreams,  but  with  all 
the  detail  clear  and  reasonable.  Some  Eliz- 
abethan house  with  its  scrap  of  earlier 
fourteenth-century  building,  and  its  later 
degradations  of  Queen  Anne  and  Silly  Billy 
and  Victoria,  marring  but  not  destroying  it, 
in  an  old  village  once  a  clearing  amid  the 
sandy  woodlands  of  Sussex.  Or  an  old  and 
unusually  curious  church,  much  church-ward- 
ened,  and  beside  it  a  fragment  of  fifteenth 
century  domestic  architecture  amongst  the 
not  unpicturesque  lath  and  plaster  of  an 
Essex  farm,  and  looking  natural  enough 
among  the  sleepy  elms  and  the  meditative 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

hens  scratching  about  in  the  litter  of  the 
farmyard,  whose  trodden  yellow  straw  comes 
up  to  the  very  jambs  of  the  richly  carved  Nor- 
man doorway  of  the  church.  Or  sometimes 
'tis  a  splendid  collegiate  church,  untouched 
by  restoring  parson  and  architect,  standing 
amid  an  island  of  shapely  trees  and  flower- 
beset  cottages  of  thatched  grey  stone  and 
cob,  amidst  the  narrow  stretch  of  bright 
green  water-meadows  that  wind  between  the 
sweeping  Wiltshire  downs,  so  well  beloved 
of  William  Cobbett.  Or  some  new-seen 
and  yet  familiar  cluster  of  houses  in  a  grey 
village  of  the  upper  Thames  overtopped  by 
the  delicate  tracery  of  a  fourteenth-century 
church  ;  or  even  sometimes  the  very  buildings 
of  the  past  untouched  by  the  degradation  of 
the  sordid  utilitarianism  that  cares  not  and 
knows  not  of  beauty  and  history:  as  once, 
when  I  was  journeying  (in  a  dream  of  the 
night)  down  the  well-remembered  reaches  of 
the  Thames  betwixt  Streatley  and  Walling- 
ford,  where  the  foot  hills  of  the  White  Horse 
fall  back  from  the  broad  stream,  I  came 
upon  a  clear-seen  mediaeval  town  standing 
up  with  roof  and  tower  and  spire  within  its 
walls,  grey  and  ancient,  but  untouched  from 
the  days  of  its  builders  of  old.  All  this  I 
have  seen  in  the  dreams  of  the  night  clearer 
than   I   can   force   myself    to   see   them   in 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

dreams  of  the  day.  So  that  it  would  have 
been  nothing  new  to  me  the  other  night  to 
fall  into  an  architectural  dream  if  that  were 
all,  and  yet  I  have  to  tell  of  things  strange 
and  new  that  befell  me  after  I  had  fallen 
asleep.  I  had  begun  my  sojourn  in  the 
Land  of  Nod  by  a  very  confused  attempt  to 
conclude  that  it  was  all  right  for  me  to  have 
an  engagement  to  lecture  at  Manchester  and 
Mitcham  Fair  Green  at  half-past  eleven  at 
night  on  one  and  the  same  Sunday,  and  that 
I  could  manage  pretty  well.  And  then  I 
had  gone  on  to  try  to  make  the  best  of 
addressing  a  large  open-air  audience  in  the 
costume  I  was  really  then  wearing — to  wit, 
my  night-shirt,  reinforced  for  the  dream 
occasion  by  a  pair  of  braceless  trousers. 
The  consciousness  of  this  fact  so  bothered 
me,  that  the  earnest  faces  of  my  audience  — 
who  would  not  notice  it,  but  were  clearly 
preparing  terrible  anti- Socialist  posers  for  me 
—  began  to  fade  away  and  my  dream  grew 
thin,  and  I  awoke  (as  I  thought)  to  find 
myself  lying  on  a  strip  of  wayside  waste  by 
an  oak  copse  just  outside  a  country  village. 
I  got  up  and  rubbed  my  eyes  and  looked 
about  me,  and  the  landscape  seemed  unfa- 
miliar to  me,  though  it  was,  as  to  the  lie  of 
the  land,  an  ordinary  English  low-country, 
swelling  into  rising  ground  here  and  there. 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

The  road  was  narrow,  and  I  was  convinced 
that  it  was  a  piece  of  Roman  road  from  its 
straightness.  Copses  were  scattered  over 
the  country,  and  there  were  signs  of  two 
or  three  villages  and  hamlets  in  sight  besides 
the  one  near  me,  between  which  and  me 
there  was  some  orchard-land,  where  the  early 
apples  were  beginning  to  redden  on  the 
trees.  Also,  just  on  the  other  side  of  the 
road  and  the  ditch  which  ran  along  it,  was  a 
small  close  of  about  a  quarter  of  an  acre, 
neatly  hedged  wuth  quick,  which  was  nearly 
full  of  white  poppies,  and,  as  far  as  I  could 
see  for  the  hedge,  had  also  a  good  few  rose- 
bushes of  the  bright-red  nearly  single  kind, 
which  I  had  heard  are  the  ones  from  which 
rose-water  used  to  be  distilled.  Otherwise 
the  land  was  quite  unhedged,  but  all  under 
tillage  of  various  kinds,  mostly  in  small 
strips.  From  the  other  side  of  a  copse  not 
far  off  rose  a  tall  spire  white  and  brand-new, 
but  at  once  bold  in  outline  and  unaffectedly 
graceful,  and  also  distinctly  English  in  char- 
acter. This,  together  with  the  unhedged 
tillage  and  a  certain  unwonted  trimness  and 
handiness  about  the  enclosures  of  the  garden 
and  orchards,  puzzled  me  for  a  minute  or 
two,  as  I  did  not  understand,  new  as  the 
spire  was,  how  it  could  have  been  designed 
by  a  modem  architect ;  and  I  was  of  course 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

used  to  the  hedged  tillage  and  tumble-down 
bankrupt-looking  surroundings  of  our  modem 
agriculture.  So  that  the  garden-like  neatness 
and  trimness  of  everything  surprised  me. 
But  after  a  minute  or  two  that  surprise  left 
me  entirely;  and  if  what  I  saw  and  heard 
afterwards  seems  strange  to  you,  remember 
that  it  did  not  seem  strange  to  me  at  the 
time,  except  where  now  and  again  I  shall 
tell  you  of  it.  Also,  once  for  all,  if  I  were 
to  give  you  the  very  words  of  those  who 
spoke  to  me  you  would  scarcely  understand 
them,  although  their  language  was  English 
too,  and  at  the  time  I  could  understand 
them  at  once. 

Well,  as  I  stretched  myself  and  turned  my 
face  toward  the  village,  I  heard  horse-hoofs 
on  the  road,  and  presently  a  man  and  horse 
showed  on  the  other  end  of  the  stretch  of 
road  and  drew  near  at  a  swinging  trot  with 
plenty  of  clash  of  metal.  The  man  soon 
came  up  to  me,  but  paid  me  no  more  heed 
than  throwing  me  a  nod.  He  was  clad  in 
armour  of  mingled  steel  and  leather,  a  sword 
girt  to  his  side,  and  over  his  shoulder  a 
long-handled  bill-hook.  His  armour  was 
fantastic  in  form  and  well  wrought;  but  by 
this  time  I  was  quite  used  to  the  strangeness 
of  him,  and  merely  muttered  to  myself,  *  He 
is   coming   to   summon    the   squire   to   the 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

leet;'  so  I  turned  toward  the  village  in 
good  earnest.  Nor,  again,  was  I  surprised 
at  my  own  garments,  although  I  might  well 
have  been  from  their  unwontedness.  I  was 
dressed  in  a  black  cloth  gown  reaching  to 
my  ankles,  neatly  embroidered  about  the 
collar  and  cuffs,  with  wide  sleeves  gathered 
in  at  the  wrists ;  a  hood  with  a  sort  of  bag 
hanging  down  from  it  was  on  my  head,  a 
broad  red  leather  girdle  round  my  waist,  on 
one  side  of  which  hung  a  pouch  embroidered 
very  prettily  and  a  case  made  of  hard  leather 
chased  with  a  hunting  scene,  which  I  knew 
to  be  a  pen  and  ink  case  ;  on  the  other  side 
a  small  sheath-knife,  only  an  arm  in  case  of 
dire  necessity. 

Well,  I  came  into  the  village,  where  I  did 
not  see  (nor  by  this  time  expected  to  see)  a 
single  modern  building,  although  many  of 
them  were  nearly  new,  notably  the  church, 
which  was  large,  and  quite  ravished  my  heart 
with  its  extreme  beauty,  elegance,  and  fitness. 
The  chancel  of  this  was  so  new  that  the  dust 
of  the  stone  still  lay  white  on  the  midsummer 
grass  beneath  the  carvings  of  the  windows. 
The  houses  were  almost  all  built  of  oak 
frame-work  filled  with  cob  or  plaster  well 
whitewashed;  though  some  had  their  lower 
stories  of  rubble-stone,  with  their  windows 
and  doors  of  well-moulded  freestone.     There 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

was  much  curious  and  inventive  carving 
about  most  of  them ;  and  though  some  were 
old  and  much  worn,  there  was  the  same  look 
of  deftness  and  trimness,  and  even  beauty, 
about  every  detail  in  them  which  I  noticed 
before  in  the  field-work.  They  were  all 
roofed  with  oak  shingles,  mostly  grown  as 
grey  as  stone;  but  one  was  so  newly  built 
that  its  roof  was  yet  pale  and  yellow.  This 
was  a  corner  house,  and  the  corner  post 
of  it  had  a  carved  niche  wherein  stood  a 
gaily  painted  figure  holding  an  anchor — St. 
Clement  to  wit,  as  the  dweller  in  the  house 
was  a  blacksmith.  Half  a  stone's  throw 
from  the  east  end  of  the  churchyard  wall 
was  a  tall  cross  of  stone,  new  like  the  church, 
the  head  beautifully  carved  with  a  crucifix 
amidst  leafage.  It  stood  on  a  set  of  wide 
stone  steps,  octagonal  in  shape,  where  three 
roads  from  other  villages  met  and  formed  a 
wide  open  space  on  which  a  thousand  people 
or  more  could  stand  together  with  no  great 
crowding. 

All  this  I  saw,  and  also  that  there  was  a 
goodish  many  people  about,  women  and 
children,  and  a  few  old  men  at  the  doors, 
many  of  them  somewhat  gaily  clad,  and  that 
men  were  coming  into  the  village  street  by 
the  other  end  to  that  by  which  I  had  entered, 
by  twos  and  threes,  most  of  them  carrying 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

what  I  could  see  were  bows  in  cases  of  linen 
yellow  with  wax  or  oil ;  they  had  quivers  at 
their  backs,  and  most  of  them  a  short  sword 
by  their  left  side,  and  a  pouch  and  knife  on 
the  right ;  they  were  mostly  dressed  in  red 
or  brightish  green  or  blue  cloth  jerkins,  with 
a  hood  on  the  head  generally  of  another 
colour.  As  they  came  nearer  I  saw  that  the 
cloth  of  their  garments  was  somewhat  coarse, 
but  stout  and  serviceable.  I  knew,  some- 
how, that  they  had  been  shooting  at  the 
butts,  and,  indeed,  I  could  still  hear  a  noise 
of  men  thereabout,  and  even  now  and  again 
when  the  wind  set  from  that  quarter  the 
twang  of  the  bowstring  and  the  plump  of 
the  shaft  in  the  target. 

I  leaned  against  the  churchyard  wall  and 
watched  these  men,  some  of  whom  went 
straight  into  their  houses  and  some  loitered 
about  still ;  they  were  rough-looking  fellows, 
tall  and  stout,  very  black  some  of  them,  and 
some  red-haired,  but  most  had  hair  burnt  by 
the  sun  into  the  colour  of  tow ;  and,  indeed, 
they  were  all  burned  and  tanned  and  freckled 
variously.  Their  arms  and  buckles  and  belts 
and  the  finishings  and  hems  of  their  garments 
were  all  what  we  should  now  call  beautiful, 
rough  as  the  men  were;  nor  in  their  speech 
was  any  of  that  drawling  snarl  or  thick 
vulgarity  which  one  b  used  to  hear  from 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

labourers  in  civilisation ;  not  that  they  talked 
like  gentlemen  either,  but  full  and  round 
and  bold,  and  they  were  merry  and  good- 
tempered  enough ;  I  could  see  that,  though 
I  felt  shy  and  timid  amongst  them. 

One  of  them  strode  up  to  me  across  the 
road,  a  man  some  six  feet  high,  with  a  short 
black  beard  and  black  eyes  and  berry-brown 
skin,  with  a  huge  bow  in  his  hand  bare  of  the 
case,  a  knife,  a  pouch,  and  a  short  hatchet, 
all  clattering  together  at  his  girdle. 

'  Well,  friend,'  said  he,  '  thou  lookest  partly 
mazed,  what  tongue  hast  thou  in  thine  head? ' 

'  A  tongue  that  can  tell  rhymes,'  said  I. 

'  So  I  thought,'  said  he.  '  Thirstest  thou 
any?' 

'  Yea,  and  hunger,'  said  I. 

And  therewith  my  hand  went  into  my 
purse,  and  came  out  again  with  but  a  few 
small  and  thin  silver  coins  with  a  cross 
stamped  on  each,  and  three  pellets  in  each 
corner  of  the  cross.     The  man  grinned. 

'  Aha  1 '  said  he,  '  is  it  so  ?  Never  heed  it, 
mate.  It  shall  be  a  song  for  a  supper  this 
fair  Sunday  evening.  But  first,  whose  man 
art  thou  ? ' 

•  No  one's  man,'  said  I,  reddening  angrily  ; 
'  I  am  my  own  master.' 

He  grinned  again. 

'  Nay,  that's  not  the  custom  of  England, 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

as  one  time  belike  it  will  be.  Methinks  thou 
comest  from  heaven  down,  and  hast  had  a 
high  place  there  too.' 

He  seemed  to  hesitate  a  moment,  and 
then  leant  forward  and  whispered  in  my  ear  : 
^John  the  Miller,  that  ground  small,  small, 
small^  and  stopped  and  winked  at  me,  and 
from  between  my  lips  without  my  mind 
forming  any  meaning  came  the  words,  '  The 
king's  son  of  heaven  shall  pay  for  all.^ 

He  let  his  bow  fall  on  to  his  shoulder, 
caught  my  right  hand  in  his  and  gave  it  a 
great  grip,  while  his  left  hand  fell  among  the 
gear  at  his  belt,  and  I  could  see  that  he  half 
drew  his  knife. 

'  Well,  brother,'  said  he,  '  stand  not  here 
hungry  in  the  highway  when  there  is  flesh 
and  bread  in  the  "  Rose  "  yonder.    Come  on.' 

And  with  that  he  drew  me  along  toward 
what  was  clearly  a  tavern  door,  outside  which 
men  were  sitting  on  a  couple  of  benches  and 
drinking  meditatively  from  curiously  shaped 
earthen  pots  glazed  green  and  yellow,  some 
with  quaint  devices  on  them. 


II 

THE   MAN    FROM   ESSEX 

I  ENTERED  the  doof  and  started  at  first 
with  my  old  astonishment,  with  which  I 
had  woke  up,  so  strange  and  beautiful  did 
this  interior  seem  to  me,  though  it  was  but  a 
pothouse  parlour.  A  quaintly  carved  side- 
board held  an  array  of  bright  pewter  pots 
and  dishes  and  wooden  and  earthen  bowls ; 
a  stout  oak  table  went  up  and  down  the 
room,  and  a  carved  oak  chair  stood  by  the 
chimney-comer,  now  filled  by  a  very  old  man 
dim-eyed  and  white-bearded.  That,  except 
the  rough  stools  and  benches  on  which  the 
company  sat,  was  all  the  furniture.  The 
walls  were  panelled  roughly  enough  with  oak 
boards  to  about  six  feet  from  the  floor,  and 
about  three  feet  of  plaster  above  that  was 
wrought  in  a  pattern  of  a  rose  stem  running 
all  round  the  room,  freely  and  roughly  done, 
but  with  (as  it  seemed  to  my  unused  eyes) 
wonderful  skill  and  spirit.  On  the  hood  of 
the  great  chimney  a  huge  rose  was  wrought 
in  the  plaster  and  brightly  painted  in  its 
proper  colours.  There  were  a  dozen  or 
more  of  the  men  I  had  seen  coming  along 
the  street  sitting  there,  some  eating  and  all 
drinking;  their  cased  bows  leaned  against 
the  wall,  their  quivers  hung  on  pegs  in  the 
panelling,  and  in  a  corner  of  the  room  I  saw 


»3 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

half-a-dozen  bill-hooks  that  looked  made 
more  for  war  than  for  hedge-shearing,  with 
ashen  handles  some  seven  foot  long.  Three 
or  four  children  were  running  about  among 
the  legs  of  the  men,  heeding  them  mighty 
little  in  their  bold  play,  and  the  men  seemed 
little  troubled  by  it,  although  they  were  talk- 
ing earnestly  and  seriously  too.  A  well-made 
comely  girl  leaned  up  against  the  chimney 
close  to  the  gaffer's  chair,  and  seemed  to 
be  in  waiting  on  the  company :  she  was  clad 
in  a  close-fitting  gown  of  bright  blue  cloth, 
with  a  broad  silver  girdle,  daintily  wrought, 
round  her  loins,  a  rose  wreath  was  on  her 
head  and  her  hair  hung  down  unbound ;  the 
gaffer  grumbled  a  few  words  to  her  from 
time  to  time,  so  that  I  judged  he  was  her 
grandfather. 

The  men  all  looked  up  as  we  came  into 
the  room,  my  mate  leading  me  by  the  hand, 
and  he  called  out  in  his  rough,  good-tem- 
pered voice,  '  Here,  my  masters,  I  bring  you 
tidings  and  a  tale;  give  it  meat  and  drink 
that  it  may  be  strong  and  sweet.' 

'  Whence  are  thy  tidings.  Will  Green  ? ' 
said  one. 

My  mate  grinned  again  with  the  pleasure 
of  making  his  joke  once  more  in  a  bigger 
company :  '  It  seemeth  from  heaven,  since 
this  good  old  lad  hath  no  master,'  said  he. 


14 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

•The  more  fool  he  to  come  here,'  said  a 
thin  man  with  a  grizzled  beard,  amidst  the 
laughter  that  followed,  'unless  he  had  the 
choice  given  him  between  hell  and  England.' 

'Nay,'  said  I,  'I  come  not  from  heaven, 
but  from  Essex.' 

As  I  said  the  word  a  great  shout  sprang 
from  all  mouths  at  once,  as  clear  and  sudden 
as  a  shot  from  a  gun.  For  I  must  tell  you 
that  I  knew  somehow,  but  I  know  not  how, 
that  the  men  of  Essex  were  gathering  to  rise 
against  the  poll-groat  bailiffs  and  the  lords 
that  would  turn  them  all  into  villeins  again, 
as  their  grandfathers  had  been.  And  the 
people  was  weak  and  the  lords  were  poor ; 
and  many  a  mother's  son  had  fallen  in 
the  war  in  France  in  the  old  king's  time, 
and  the  Black  Death  had  slain  a  many ;  so 
that  the  lords  had  bethought  them:  'We 
are  growing  poorer,  and  these  upland-bred 
villeins  are  growing  richer,  and  the  guilds  of 
craft  are  waxing  in  the  towns,  and  soon  what 
will  there  be  left  for  us  who  cannot  weave 
and  will  not  dig  ?  Good  it  were  if  we  fell  on 
all  who  are  not  guildsmen  or  men  of  free 
land,  if  we  fell  on  soccage  tenants  and  others, 
and  brought  both  the  law  and  the  strong 
hand  on  them,  and  made  them  all  villeins  in 
deed  as  they  are  now  in  name;  for  now 
these  rascals  make  more  than  their  bellies 


»5 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

need  of  bread,  and  their  backs  of  homespun, 
and  the  overplus  they  keep  to  themselves ; 
and  we  are  more  worthy  of  it  than  they.  So 
let  us  get  the  collar  on  their  necks  again, 
and  make  their  day's  work  longer  and  their 
bever-time  shorter,  as  the  good  statute  of 
the  old  king  bade.  And  good  it  were  if  the 
Holy  Church  were  to  look  to  it  (and  the 
Lollards  might  help  herein)  that  all  these 
naughty  and  wearisome  holidays  were  done 
away  with ;  or  that  it  should  be  unlawful  for 
any  man  below  the  degree  of  a  squire  to 
keep  the  holy  days  of  the  church,  except  in 
the  heart  and  the  spirit  only,  and  let  the 
body  labour  meanwhile;  for  does  not  the 
Apostle  say  '  If  a  man  work  not,  neither 
should  he  eat  ? '  And  if  such  things  were 
done,  and  such  an  estate  of  noble  rich  men 
and  worthy  poor  men  upholden  for  ever, 
then  would  it  be  good  times  in  England,  and 
life  were  worth  the  living.' 

All  this  were  the  lords  at  work  on,  and 
such  talk  I  knew  was  common  not  only 
among  the  lords  themselves,  but  also  among 
their  sergeants  and  very  serving-men.  But 
the  people  would  not  abide  it ;  therefore,  as 
I  said,  in  Essex  they  were  on  the  point  of 
rising,  and  word  had  gone  how  that  at  St. 
Albans  they  were  wellnigh  at  blows  with  the 
Lord  Abbot's  soldiers;  that  north  away  at 


i6 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

Norwich  John  Litster  was  wiping  the  woad 
from  his  arms,  as  who  would  have  to  stain 
them  red  again,  but  not  with  grain  or  madder ; 
and  that  the  valiant  tiler  of  Dartford  had 
smitten  a  poll-groat  bailiff  to  death  with  his 
lath-rending  axe  for  mishandling  a  young 
maid,  his  daughter;  and  that  the  men  of 
Kent  were  on  the  move. 

Now,  knowing  all  this  I  was  not  astonished 
that  they  shouted  at  the  thought  of  their 
fellows  the  men  of  Essex,  but  rather  that 
they  said  little  more  about  it ;  only  Will 
Green  saying  quietly,  '  Well,  the  tidings 
shall  be  told  when  our  fellowship  is  greater  ; 
fall-to  now  on  the  meat,  brother,  that  we 
may  the  sooner  have  thy  tale.'  As  he  spoke 
the  blue<lad  damsel  bestirred  herself  and 
brought  me  a  clean  trencher  —  that  is,  a 
square  piece  of  thin  oak  board  scraped  clean 
—  and  a  pewter  pot  of  liquor.  So  without 
more  ado,  and  as  one  used  to  it,  I  drew  my 
knife  out  of  my  girdle  and  cut  myself  what 
I  would  of  the  flesh  and  bread  on  the  table. 
But  Will  Green  mocked  me  as  I  cut,  and 
said,  '  Certes,  brother,  thou  hast  not  been  a 
lord's  carver,  though  but  for  thy  word  thou 
mightest  have  been  his  reader.  Hast  thou 
seen  Oxford,  scholar  ? ' 

A  vision  of  grey-roofed  houses  and  a  long 
winding  street  and  the  sound  of  many  bells 


17 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    PALL 

came  over  me  at  that  word  as  I  nodded 
'  Yes*  to  him,  my  mouth  full  of  salt  pork  and 
rye-bread;  and  then  I  lifted  my  pot  and  we 
made  the  clattering  mugs  kiss  and  I  drank, 
and  the  fire  of  the  good  Kentish  mead  ran 
through  my  veins  and  deepened  my  dream 
of  things  past,  present,  and  to  come,  as  I 
said :  '  Now  hearken  a  tale,  since  ye  will 
have  it  so.  For  last  autumn  I  was  in  Suffolk 
at  the  good  town  of  Dunwich,  and  thither 
came  the  keels  from  Iceland,  and  on  them 
were  some  men  of  Iceland,  and  many  a  tale 
they  had  on  their  tongues;  and  with  these 
men  I  foregathered,  for  I  am  in  sooth  a 
gatherer  of  tales,  and  this  that  is  now  at  my 
tongue's  end  is  one  of  them.' 

So  such  a  tale  I  told  them,  long  familiar 
to  me;  but  as  I  told  it  the  words  seem  to 
quicken  and  grow,  so  that  I  knew  not  the 
sound  of  my  own  voice,  and  they  ran  almost 
into  rhyme  and  measure  as  I  told  it;  and 
when  I  had  done  there  was  silence  awhile, 
till  one  man  spake,  but  not  loudly  : 

'  Yea,  in  that  land  was  the  summer  short 
and  the  winter  long;  but  men  lived  both 
summer  and  winter;  and  if  the  trees  grew  ill 
and  the  com  throve  not,  yet  did  the  plant 
called  man  thrive  and  do  well.  God  send 
us  such  men  even  here.' 

'  Nay,'  said  another,  '  such  men  have  been 


i8 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

and  will  be,  and  belike  are  not  far  from  this 
same  door  even  now.' 

'  Yea,'  said  a  third,  '  hearken  a  stave  of 
Robin  Hood;  maybe  that  shall  hasten  the 
coming  of  one  I  wot  of.'  And  he  fell  to 
singing  in  a  clear  voice,  for  he  was  a  young 
man,  and  to  a  sweet  wild  melody,  one  of 
those  ballads  which  in  an  incomplete  and 
degraded  form  you  have  read  perhaps.  My 
heart  rose  high  as  I  heard  him,  for  it  was 
concerning  the  struggle  against  tyranny  for 
the  freedom  of  life,  how  that  the  wild  wood 
and  the  heath,  despite  of  wind  and  weather, 
were  better  for  a  free  man  than  the  court 
and  the  cheaping-town ;  of  the  taking  from 
the  rich  to  give  to  the  poor ;  of  the  life  of  a 
man  doing  his  own  will  and  not  the  will  of 
another  man  commanding  him  for  the  com- 
mandment's sake.  The  men  all  listened 
eagerly,  and  at  whiles  took  up  as  a  refrain  a 
couplet  at  the  end  of  a  stanza  with  their 
strong  and  rough,  but  not  unmusical  voices. 
As  they  sang,  a  picture  of  the  wild  woods 
passed  by  me,  as  they  were  indeed,  no  park- 
like dainty  glades  and  lawns,  but  rough  and 
tangled  thicket  and  bare  waste  and  heath, 
solemn  under  the  morning  sun,  and  dreary 
with  the  rising  of  the  evening  wind  and  the 
drift  of  the  night-long  rain. 

When   he   had   done,   another   began    in 


'9 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

something  of  the  same  strain,  but  singing 
more  of  a  song  than  a  story  ballad;  and 
thus  much  I  remember  of  it : 

The  Sheriff  is  made  a  mighty  lord, 

Of  goodly  gold  he  hath  enow, 
And  many  a  sergeant  girt  with  sword ; 
But  forth  will  we  and  bend  the  bow. 
We  shall  bend  the  bow  on  the  lily  lea 
Betwixt  the  thorn  and  the  oaken  tree. 

With  stone  and  lime  is  the  burg  wall  built. 
And  pit  and  prison  are  stark  and  strong. 
And  many  a  true  man  there  is  spilt, 

And  many  a  right  man  doomed  by  wrong. 
So  forth  shall  we  and  bend  the  bow 
And  the  king's  writ  never  the  road  shall  know. 

Now  yeoman  walk  ye  warily. 

And  heed  ye  the  houses  where  ye  go. 
For  as  fair  and  as  fine  as  they  may  be. 
Lest  behind  your  heels  the  door  clap  to. 
Fare  forth  with  the  bow  to  the  lily  lea 
Betwixt  the  thorn  and  the  oaken  tree. 

Now  bills  and  bows  !  and  out  a-gate  1 

And  turn  about  on  the  lily  lea  ! 
And  though  their  company  be  great 
The  grey-goose  wing  shall  set  us  free. 
Now  bent  is  the  bow  in  the  green  abode 
And  the  king's  writ  knoweth  not  the  road. 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

So  over  the  mead  and  over  the  hithe, 

And  away  to  the  wild  wood  wend  we  forth  ; 
There  dwell  we  yeomen  bold  and  blithe 

Where  the  Sheriff's  word  is  nought  of  worth. 
Bent  is  the  bow  on  the  lily  lea 
Betwixt  the  thorn  and  the  oaken  tree. 

But  here  the  song  dropped  suddenly,  and 
one  of  the  men  held  up  his  hand  as  who 
would  say,  Hist!  Then  through  the  open 
window  came  the  sound  of  another  song, 
gradually  swelling  as  though  sung  by  men 
on  the  march.  This  time  the  melody  was  a 
piece  of  the  plain-song  of  the  church,  familiar 
enough  to  me  to  bring  back  to  my  mind  the 
great  arches  of  some  cathedral  in  France 
and  the  canons  singing  in  the  choir. 

All  leapt  up  and  hurried  to  take  their 
bows  from  wall  and  corner;  and  some  had 
bucklers  withal,  circles  of  leather,  boiled 
and  then  moulded  into  shape  and  hardened  : 
these  were  some  two  hand-breadths  across, 
with  iron  or  brass  bosses  in  the  centre.  Will 
Green  went  to  the  corner  where  the  bills 
leaned  against  the  wall  and  handed  them 
round  to  the  first  comers  as  far  as  they 
would  go,  and  out  we  ail  went  gravely  and 
quietly  into  the  village  street  and  the  fair 
sunlight  of  the  calm  afternoon,  now  beginning 
to  turn  towards  evening.     None    had    said 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

anything  since  we  first  heard  the  new-come 
singing,  save  that  as  we  went  out  of  the  door 
the  ballad-singer  clapped  me  on  the  shoulder 
and  said : 

'  Was  it  not  sooth  that  I  said,  brother,  that 
Robin  Hood  should  bring  us  John  Ball  ? ' 


Ill 

THEY    MEET   AT   THE   CROSS 

THE  Street  was  pretty  full  of  men  by  then 
we  were  out  in  it,  and  all  faces  turned 
toward  the  cross.  The  song  still  grew  nearer 
and  louder,  and  even  as  we  looked  we  saw  it 
turning  the  comer  through  the  hedges  of  the 
orchards  and  closes,  a  good  clump  of  men, 
more  armed,  as  it  would  seem,  than  our 
villagers,  as  the  low  sun  flashed  back  from 
many  points  of  bright  iron  and  steel.  The 
words  of  the  song  could  now  be  heard,  and 
amidst  them  I  could  pick  out  Will  Green's 
late  challenge  to  me  and  my  answer;  but  as 
I  was  bending  all  my  mind  to  disentangle 
more  words  from  the  music,  suddenly  from 
the  new  white  tower  behind  us  clashed  out 
the  church  bells,  harsh  and  hurried  at  first, 
but  presently  falling  into  measured  chime; 
and  at  the  first  sound  of  them  a  great  shout 
went  up  from  us  and  was  echoed  by  the 
new-comers,  'John  Ball  hath  rung  our  bell!  * 
Then  we  pressed  on,  and  presently  we  were 
all  mingled  together  at  the  cross. 

Will  Green  had  good-naturedly  thrust  and 
pulled  me  forward,  so  that  I  found  myself 
standing  on  the  lowest  step  of  the  cross,  his 
seventy-two  inches  of  man  on  one  side  of 
me.     He  chuckled  while  I  panted,  and  said  : 


23 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

'  There's  for  thee  a  good  hearing  and  see- 
ing stead,  old  lad.  Thou  art  tall  across  thy 
belly  and  not  otherwise,  and  thy  wind,  belike, 
is  none  of  the  best,  and  but  for  me  thou 
wouldst  have  been  amidst  the  thickest  of 
the  throng,  and  have  heard  words  muffled 
by  Kentish  bellies  and  seen  little  but  swinky 
woollen  elbows  and  greasy  plates  and  jacks. 
Look  no  more  on  the  ground,  as  though 
thou  sawest  a  hare,  but  let  thine  eyes  and 
thine  ears  be  busy  to  gather  tidings  to  bear 
back  to  Essex  —  or  heaven  I ' 

I  grinned  good-fellowship  at  him  but  said 
nothing,  for  in  truth  my  eyes  and  ears  w^ere 
as  busy  as  he  would  have  them  to  be.  A 
buzz  of  general  talk  went  up  from  the  throng 
amidst  the  regular  cadence  of  the  bells, 
which  now  seemed  far  away  and  as  it  were 
that  they  were  not  swayed  by  hands,  but 
were  living  creatures  making  that  noise  of 
their  own  wills. 

I  looked  around  and  saw  that  the  new- 
comers mingled  with  us  must  have  been  a 
regular  armed  band ;  all  had  bucklers  slung 
at  their  backs,  few  lacked  a  sword  at  the 
side.  Some  had  bows,  some  'staves '  —  that 
is,  bills,  pole-axes,  or  pikes.  Moreover,  unlike 
our  villagers,  they  had  defensive  arms.  Most 
had  steel-caps  on  their  heads,  and  some  had 
body  armour,  generally  a  'jack,'  or  coat  into 


24 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN  BALL 

which  pieces  of  iron  or  horn  were  quilted; 
some  had  also  steel  or  steel-and-leather  arm 
or  thigh  pieces.  There  were  a  few  mounted 
men  among  them,  their  horses  being  big- 
boned  hammer-headed  beasts,  that  looked 
as  if  they  had  been  taken  from  plough  or 
waggon,  but  their  riders  were  well  armed 
with  steel  armour  on  their  heads,  legs,  and 
arms.  Amongst  the  horsemen  I  noted  the 
man  that  had  ridden  past  me  when  I  first 
awoke;  but  he  seemed  to  be  a  prisoner,  as 
he  had  a  woollen  hood  on  his  head  instead 
of  his  helmet,  and  carried  neither,  bill,  sword, 
nor  dagger.  He  seemed  by  no  means  ill-at- 
ease,  however,  but  was  laughing  and  talking 
with  the  men  who  stood  near  him. 

Above  the  heads  of  the  crowd,  and  now 
slowly  working  towards  the  cross,  was  a 
banner  on  a  high-raised  cross-pole,  a  picture 
of  a  man  and  woman  half-clad  in  skins  of 
beasts  seen  against  a  back-ground  of  green 
trees,  the  man  holding  a  spade  and  the 
woman  a  distaff  and  spindle,  rudely  done 
enough,  but  yet  with  a  certain  spirit  and 
much  meaning ;  and  underneath  this  symbol 
of  the  early  world  and  man's  first  contest 
with  nature  were  the  written  words : 

'  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Who  was  then  the  gentleman  ? ' 


25 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

The  banner  came  on  and  through  the 
crowd,  which  at  last  opened  where  we  stood 
for  its  passage,  and  the  banner-bearer  turned 
and  faced  the  throng  and  stood  on  the  first 
step  of  the  cross  beside  me. 

A  man  followed  him,  clad  in  a  long  dark- 
brown  gown  of  coarse  woollen,  girt  with  a 
cord,  to  which  hung  a  'pair  of  beads'  (or 
rosary,  as  we  should  call  it  to-day)  and  a 
book  in  a  bag.  The  man  was  tall  and  big- 
boned,  a  ring  of  dark  hair  surrounded  his 
priest's  tonsure;  his  nose  was  big  but  clear 
cut  and  with  wide  nostrils :  his  shaven  face 
showed  a  longish  upper  lip  and  a  big  but 
blunt  chin;  his  mouth  was  big  and  the  lips 
closed  firmly;  a  face  not  very  noteworthy 
but  for  his  grey  eyes  well  opened  and  wide 
apart,  at  whiles  lighting  up  his  whole  face 
with  a  kindly  smile,  at  whiles  set  and  stern, 
at  whiles  resting  in  that  look  as  if  they  were 
gazing  at  something  a  long  way  off,  which 
is  the  wont  of  the  eyes  of  the  poet  or 
enthusiast. 

He  went  slowly  up  the  steps  of  the  cross 
and  stood  at  the  top  with  one  hand  laid  on 
the  shaft,  and  shout  upon  shout  broke  forth 
from  the  throng.  When  the  shouting  died 
away  into  a  silence  of  the  human  voices,  the 
bells  were  still  quietly  chiming  with  that  far- 
away voice  of  theirs,  and  the  long-winged 


26 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

dusky  swifts,  by  no  means  scared  by  the 
concourse,  swung  round  about  the  cross 
with  their  wild  squeals ;  and  the  man  stood 
still  for  a  little,  eyeing  the  throng,  or  rather 
looking  first  at  one  and  then  another  man  in 
it,  as  though  he  were  trying  to  think  what 
such  an  one  was  thinking  of,  or  what  he 
were  fit  for.  Sometimes  he  caught  the  eye 
of  one  or  other,  and  then  that  kindly  smile 
spread  over  his  face,  but  faded  off  it  into 
the  sternness  and  sadness  of  a  man  who 
has  heavy  and  great  thoughts  hanging  about 
him. 

But  when  John  Ball  first  mounted  the 
steps  of  the  cross  a  lad  at  some  one's  bid- 
ding had  run  off  to  stop  the  ringers,  and  so 
presently  the  voice  of  the  bells  fell  dead, 
leaving  on  men's  minds  that  sense  of  blank- 
ness  or  even  disappointment  which  is  always 
caused  by  the  sudden  stopping  of  a  sound 
one  has  got  used  to  and  found  pleasant. 
But  a  great  expectation  had  fallen  by  now 
on  all  that  throng,  and  no  word  was  spoken 
even  in  a  whisper,  and  all  men's  hearts  and 
eyes  were  fixed  upon  the  dark  figure  standing 
straight  up  now  by  the  tall  white  shaft  of 
the  cross,  his  hands  stretched  out  before 
him,  one  palm  laid  upon  the  other.  And 
for  me,  as  I  made  ready  to  hearken,  I  felt  a 
joy  in  my  soul  that  I  had  never  yet  felt. 


27 


IV 

THE  VOICE   OF  JOHN    BALL 

SO  now  I  heard  John  Ball ;  how  he  lifted 
up  his  voice  and  said  : 

'  Ho,  all  ye  good  people  1  I  am  a  priest  of 
God,  and  in  my  day's  work  it  cometh  that  I 
should  tell  you  what  ye  should  do,  and  what 
ye  should  forbear  doing,  and  to  that  end  I 
am  come  hither :  yet  first,  if  I  myself  have 
wronged  any  man  here,  let  him  say  wherein 
my  wrong-doing  lieth,  that  I  may  ask  his 
pardon  and  his  pity.' 

A  great  hum  of  good-will  ran  through  the 
crowd  as  he  spoke;  then  he  smiled  as  in  a 
kind  of  pride,  and  again  he  spoke : 

'  Wherefore  did  ye  take  me  out  of  the 
archbishop's  prison  but  three  days  agone, 
when  ye  lighted  the  archbishop's  house  for 
the  candle  of  Canterbury,  but  that  I  might 
speak  to  you  and  pray  you  :  therefore  I  will 
not  keep  silence,  whether  I  have  done  ill,  or 
whether  I  have  done  well.  And  herein, 
good  fellows  and  my  very  brethren,  I  would 
have  you  to  follow  me ;  and  if  there  be  such 
here,  as  I  know  full  well  there  be  some,  and 
may  be  a  good  many,  who  have  been  robbers 
of  their  neighbours  ("And  who  is  my  neigh- 
bour.-"' quoth  the  rich  man),  or  lechers,  or 
despiteful  haters,  or  talebearers,  or  fawners 
on  rich  men  for  the  hurt  of  the  poor  (and 


28 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

that  is  the  worst  of  all)  —  Ah,  my  poor 
brethren  who  have  gone  astray,  I  say  not  to 
you,  go  home  and  repent  lest  you  mar  our 
great  deeds,  but  rather  come  afield  and  there 
repent.  Many  a  day  have  ye  been  fools,  but 
hearken  unto  me  and  I  shall  make  you  wise 
above  the  wisdom  of  the  earth ;  and  if  ye 
die  in  your  wisdom,  as  God  wot  ye  well  may, 
since  the  fields  ye  wend  to  bear  swords  for 
daisies,  and  spears  for  bents,  then  shall  ye 
be,  though  men  call  you  dead,  a  part  and 
parcel  of  the  living  wisdom  of  all  things, 
very  stones  of  the  pillars  that  uphold  the 
joyful  earth. 

'  Forsooth,  ye  have  heard  it  said  that  ye 
shall  do  well  in  this  world  that  in  the  world 
to  come  ye  may  live  happily  for  ever ;  do  ye 
well  then,  and  have  your  reward  both  on 
earth  and  in  heaven ;  for  I  say  to  you  that 
earth  and  heaven  are  not  two  but  one ;  and 
this  one  is  that  which  ye  know,  and  are 
each  one  of  you  a  part  of,  to  wit,  the  Holy 
Church,  and  in  each  one  of  you  dwelleth  the 
life  of  the  church,  unless  ye  slay  it.  For- 
sooth, brethren,  will  ye  murder  the  church 
any  one  of  you,  and  go  forth  a  wandering 
man  and  lonely,  even  as  Cain  did  who  slew 
his  brother  ?  Ah,  my  brothers,  what  an  evil 
doom  is  this,  to  be  an  outcast  from  the 
church,  to  have  none  to  love  you  and   to 


29 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

speak  vrith  you,  to  be  without  fellowship  I 
Forsooth,  brothers,  fellowship  is  heaven, 
and  lack  of  fellowship  is  hell :  fellowship  is 
life,  and  lack  of  fellowship  is  death  :  and  the 
deeds  that  ye  do  upon  the  earth,  it  is  for 
fellowship's  sake  that  ye  do  them,  and  the 
life  that  is  in  it,  that  shall  live  on  and  on  for 
ever,  and  each  one  of  you  part  of  it,  while 
many  a  man's  life  upon  the  earth  from  the 
earth  shall  wane. 

'  Therefore,  I  bid  you  not  dwell  in  hell  but 
in-  heaven,  or  while  ye  must,  upon  earth, 
which  is  a  part  of  heaven,  and  forsooth  no 
foul  part. 

'  Forsooth,  he  that  waketh  in  hell  and 
feeleth  his  heart  fail  him,  shall  have  memory 
of  the  merry  days  of  earth,  and  how  that 
when  his  heart  failed  him  there,  he  cried  on 
his  fellow,  were  it  his  wife  or  his  son  or  his 
brother  or  his  gossip  or  his  brother  sworn  in 
arms,  and  how  that  his  fellow  heard  him  and 
came  and  they  mourned  together  under  the 
sun,  till  again  they  laughed  together  and  were 
but  half  sorry  between  them.  This  shall  he 
think  on  in  hell,  and  cry  on  his  fellow  to  help 
him,  and  shall  find  that  therein  is  no  help 
because  there  is  no  fellowship,  but  every 
man  for  himself.  Therefore,  I  tell  you  that 
the  proud,  despiteous  rich  man,  though  he 
knoweth  it  not,  is  in  hell  already,  because 


30 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

he  hath  no  fellow;  and  he  that  hath  so 
hardy  a  heart  that  in  sorrow  he  thinketh  of 
fellowship,  his  sorrow  is  soon  but  a  story 
of  sorrow  —  a  little  change  in  the  life  that 
knows  not  ill.' 

He  left  off  for  a  little;  and  indeed  for 
some  time  his  voice  had  fallen,  but  it  was 
so  clear  and  the  summer  evening  so  soft  and 
still,  and  the  silence  of  the  folk  so  complete, 
that  every  word  told.  His  eyes  fell  down  to 
the  crowd  as  he  stopped  speaking,  since  for 
some  little  while  they  had  been  looking  far 
away  into  the  blue  distance  of  summer ;  and 
the  kind  eyes  of  the  man  had  a  curious  sight 
before  him  in  that  crowd,  for  amongst  them 
were  many  who  by  this  time  were  not  dry- 
eyed,  and  some  wept  outright  in  spite  of 
their  black  beards,  while  all  had  that  look 
as  if  they  were  ashamed  of  themselves,  and 
did  not  want  others  to  see  how  deeply  they 
were  moved,  after  the  fashion  of  their  race 
when  they  are  strongly  stirred.  I  looked 
at  Will  Green  beside  me :  his  right  hand 
clutched  his  bow  so  tight,  that  the  knuckles 
whitened;  he  was  staring  straight  before 
him,  and  the  tears  were  running  out  of  his 
eyes  and  down  his  big  nose  as  though  with- 
out his  will,  for  his  face  was  stolid  and 
unmoved  all  the  time,  till  he  caught  my  eye, 
and  then  he  screwed  up  the  strangest  face, 


3> 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

of  scowling  brow,  weeping  eyes,  and  smiling 
mouth,  while  he  dealt  me  a  sounding  thump 
in  the  ribs  with  his  left  elbow,  which,  though 
it  would  have  knocked  me  down  but  for  the 
crowd,  I  took  as  an  esquire  does  the  accolade 
which  makes  a  knight  of  him. 

But  while  I  pondered  all  these  things,  and 
how  men  fight  and  lose  the  battle,  and  the 
thing  that  they  fought  for  comes  about  in 
spite  of  their  defeat,  and  when  it  comes 
turns  out  not  to  be  w^hat  they  meant,  and 
other  men  have  to  fight  for  what  they  meant 
under  another  name  —  while  I  pondered  all 
this,  John  Ball  began  to  speak  again  in  the 
same  soft  and  clear  voice  with  which  he  had 
left  off. 

'  Good  fellows,  it  was  your  fellowship  and 
your  kindness  that  took  me  out  of  the  arch- 
bishop's prison  three  days  agone,  though 
God  wot  ye  had  nought  to  gain  by  it  save 
outlawry  and  the  gallows;  yet  lacked  I  not 
your  fellowship  before  ye  drew  near  me  in 
the  body,  and  when  between  me  and  Canter- 
bury street  was  yet  a  stone  wall,  and  the 
turnkeys  and  sergeants  and  bailiffs. 

•  For  hearken,  my  friends  and  helpers ; 
many  days  ago,  when  April  was  yet  young,  I 
lay  there,  and  the  heart  that  I  had  strung  up 
to  bear  all  things  because  of  the  fellowship 
of  men  and  the  blessed  saints  and  the  angels 


32 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

and  those  that  are,  and  those  that  are  to  be, 
this  heart,  that  I  had  strung  up  like  a  strong 
bow,  fell  into  feebleness,  so  that  I  lay  there 
a-longing  for  the  green  fields  and  the  white- 
thorn bushes  and  the  lark  singing  over  the 
com,  and  the  talk  of  good  fellows  round 
the  ale-house  bench,  and  the  babble  of  the 
little  children,  and  the  team  on  the  road  and 
the  beasts  afield,  and  all  the  life  of  earth; 
and  I  alone  all  the  while,  near  my  foes  and 
afar  from  my  friends,  mocked  and  flouted 
and  starved  with  cold  and  hunger;  and  so 
weak  was  my  heart  that  though  I  longed  for 
all  these  things  yet  I  saw  them  not,  nor  knew 
them  but  as  names ;  and  I  longed  so  sore  to 
be  gone  that  I  chided  myself  that  I  had  once 
done  well ;  and  I  said  to  myself : 

'  Forsooth  hadst  thou  kept  thy  tongue 
between  thy  teeth  thou  mightest  have  been 
something,  if  it  had  been  but  a  parson  of  a 
town,  and  comfortable  to  many  a  poor  man ; 
and  then  mightest  thou  have  clad  here  and 
there  the  naked  back,  and  filled  the  empty 
belly,  and  holpen  many,  and  men  would  have 
spoken  well  of  thee,  and  of  thyself  thou 
hadst  thought  well ;  and  all  this  hast  thou 
lost  for  lack  of  a  word  here  and  there  to 
some  great  man,  and  a  little  winking  of  the 
eyes  amidst  murder  and  wrong  and  unruth  ; 
and  now  thou  art  nought  and  helpless,  and 


33 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

the  hemp  for  thee  is  sown  and  grown  and 
heckled  and  spun,  and  lo  there,  the  rope 
for  thy  gallows-tree !  —  all  for  nought,  for 
nought. 

'  Forsooth,  my  friends,  thus  I  thought  and 
sorrowed  in  my  feebleness  that  I  had  not 
been  a  traitor  to  the  Fellowship  of  the  church, 
for  e'en  so  evil  was  my  foolish  imagination. 

'  Yet,  forsooth,  as  I  fell  a  pondering  over  all 
the  comfort  and  help  that  I  might  have  been 
and  that  I  might  have  had,  if  I  been  but 
a  little  of  a  trembling  cur  to  creep  and  crawl 
before  abbot  and  bishop  and  baron  and  bailiff, 
came  the  thought  over  me  of  the  evil  of  the 
world  wherewith  I,  John  Ball,  the  rascal 
hedge-priest,  had  fought  and  striven  in  the 
Fellowship  of  the  saints  in  heaven  and  poor 
men  upon  earth. 

'  Yea,  forsooth,  once  again  I  saw  as  of  old, 
the  great  treading  down  the  little,  and  the 
strong  beating  down  the  weak,  and  cruel 
men  fearing  not,  and  kind  men  daring  not, 
and  wise  men  caring  not ;  and  the  saints  in 
heaven  forbearing  and  yet  bidding  me  not 
to  forbear ;  forsooth,  I  knew  once  more  that 
he  who  doeth  well  in  fellowship,  and  because 
of  fellowship,  shall  not  fail  though  he  seem 
to  fail  to-day,  but  in  days  hereafter  shall  he 
and  his  work  yet  be  alive,  and  men  be  holpen 
by  them  to  strive  again  and  yet  again;  and 


34 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

yet  indeed  even  that  was  little,  since,  for- 
sooth, to  strive  was  my  pleasure  and  my  life. 

'So  I  became  a  man  once  more,  and  I 
rose  up  to  my  feet  and  went  up  and  down 
my  prison  what  I  could  for  my  hopples,  and 
into  my  mouth  came  words  of  good  cheer, 
even  such  as  we  to-day  have  sung,  and 
stoutly  I  sang  them,  even  as  we  now  have 
sung  them;  and  then  did  I  rest  me,  and 
once  more  thought  of  those  pleasant  fields 
where  I  would  be,  and  all  the  life  of  man 
and  beast  about  them,  and  I  said  to  myself 
that  I  should  see  them  once  more  before  I 
died,  if  but  once  it  were.    * 

'  Forsooth,  this  was  strange,  that  whereas 
before  I  longed  for  them  and  yet  saw  them 
not,  now  that  my  longing  was  slaked  my 
vision  was  cleared,  and  I  saw  them  as  though 
the  prison  walls  opened  to  me  and  I  was  out 
of  Canterbury  street  and  amidst  the  green 
meadows  of  April;  and  therewithal  along 
with  me  folk  that  I  have  known  and  who 
are  dead,  and  folk  that  are  living;  yea,  and 
all  those  of  the  Fellowship  on  earth  and  in 
heaven ;  yea,  and  all  that  are  here  thb  day. 
Overlong  were  the  tale  to  tell  of  them,  and 
of  the  time  that  b  gone. 

'So  thenceforward  I  wore  through  the 
days  with  no  such  faint  heart,  until  one  day 
the  prison  opened  verily  and  in  the  daylight. 


35 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

and  there  were  ye,  my  fellows,  in  the  door  — 
your  faces  glad,  your  hearts  light  with  hope, 
and  your  hands  heavy  with  wrath ;  and  then 
I  saw  and  understood  what  was  to  do.  Now, 
therefore,  do  ye  understand  it ! ' 

His  voice  was  changed,  and  grew  louder 
than  loud  now,  as  he  cast  his  hands  abroad 
towards  that  company  with  those  last  words 
of  his;  and  I  could  feel  that  all  shame  and 
fear  was  falling  from  those  men,  and  that 
mere  fiery  manhood  was  shining  through 
their  wonted  English  shame-fast  stubborn- 
ness, and  that  they  were  moved  indeed  and 
saw  the  road  before  them.  Yet  no  man 
spoke,  rather  the  silence  of  the  menfolk 
deepened,  as  the  sun's  rays  grew  more  level 
and  more  golden,  and  the  swifts  wheeled 
about  shriller  and  louder  than  before. 

Then  again  John  Ball  spoke  and  said,  '  In 
good  sooth,  I  deem  ye  wot  no  worse  than  I 
do  what  is  to  do  —  and  first  that  somewhat 
we  shall  do  —  since  it  is  for  him  that  is  lonely 
or  in  prison  to  dream  of  fellowship,  but  for 
him  that  is  of  a  fellowship  to  do  and  not  to 
dream. 

'And  next,  ye  know  who  is  the  foeman, 
and  that  is  the  proud  man,  the  oppressor, 
who  scorneth  fellowship,  and  himself  is  a 
world  to  himself  and  needeth  no  helper  nor 
helpeth  any,  but,  heeding  no  law,  layeth  law 


36 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

on  Other  men  because  he  is  rich;  and  surely 
every  one  that  is  rich  is  such  an  one,  nor 
may  be  other. 

'  Forsooth,  in  the  belly  of  every  rich  man 
dwelleth  a  devil  of  hell,  and  when  the  man 
would  give  his  goods  to  the  poor,  the  devil 
within  him  gainsayeth  it,  and  saith,  "Wilt 
thou  then  be  of  the  poor,  and  suffer  cold 
and  hunger  and  mocking  as  they  suffer,  then 
give  thou  thy  goods  to  them,  and  keep  them 
not."  And  when  he  would  be  compassionate, 
again  saith  the  devil  to  him,  "  If  thou  heed 
these  losels  and  turn  on  them  a  face  like  to 
their  faces,  and  deem  of  them  as  men,  then 
shall  they  scorn  thee,  and  evil  shall  come  of 
it,  and  even  one  day  they  shall  fall  on  thee 
to  slay  thee  when  they  have  learned  that 
thou  art  but  as  they  be." 

'  Ah,  woe  worth  the  while  I  too  oft  he 
sayeth  sooth,  as  the  wont  of  the  devil  is,  that 
lies  may  be  bom  of  the  barren  truth ;  and 
sooth  it  is  that  the  poor  deemeth  the  rich 
to  be  other  than  he,  and  meet  to  be  his 
master,  as  though,  forsooth,  the  poor  were 
come  of  Adam,  and  the  rich  of  him  that 
made  Adam,  that  is  God;  and  thus  the  poor 
man  oppresseth  the  poor  man,  because  he 
feareth  the  oppressor.  Nought  such  are  ye, 
my  brethren;  or  else  why  are  ye  gathered 
here  in  harness  to  bid  all  bear  witness  of 


37 


A  DR£AM  OP  JOHN  BALL 

you  that  ye  are  the  sons  of  one  man  and  one 
mother,  begotten  of  the  earth  ? ' 

As  he  said  the  words  there  came  a  stir 
among  the  weapons  of  the  throng,  and  they 
pressed  closer  round  the  cross,  yet  withheld 
the  shout  as  yet  which  seemed  gathering  in 
their  bosoms. 

And  again  he  said : 

»  Forsooth,  too  many  rich  qjen  there  are  in 
this  realm;  and  yet  if  there  were  but  one, 
there  would  be  one  too  many,  for  all  should 
be  his  thralls.  Hearken,  then,  ye  men  of 
Kent.  For  overlong  belike  have  I  held  you 
with  words ;  but  the  love  of  you  constrained 
me,  and  the  joy  that  a  man  hath  to  babble 
to  his  friends  and  his  fellows  whom  he  hath 
not  seen  for  a  long  season. 

'  Now,  hearken,  I  bid  you :  To  the  rich 
men  that  eat  up  a  realm  there  cometh  a  time 
when  they  whom  they  eat  up,  that  is  the 
poor,  seem  poorer  than  of  wont,  and  their 
complaint  goeth  up  louder  to  the  heavens ; 
yet  it  is  no  riddle  to  say  that  oft  at  such 
times  the  fellowship  of  the  poor  is  waxing 
stronger,  else  would  no  man  have  heard  his 
cry.  Also  at  such  times  is  the  rich  man 
become  fearful,  and  so  waxeth  in  cruelty, 
and  of  that  cruelty  do  people  misdeem  that 
it  is  power  and  might  waxing.  Forsooth,  ye 
are  stronger  than  your  fathers,  because  ye 


38 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN  BALL 

are  more  grieved  than  they,  and  ye  should 
have  been  less  grieved  than  they  had  ye 
been  horses  and  swine ;  and  then,  forsooth, 
would  ye  have  been  stronger  to  bear;  but 
ye,  ye  are  not  strong  to  bear,  but  to  do. 

'  And  wot  ye  why  we  are  come  to  you  this 
fair  eve  of  holiday  ?  and  wot  ye  why  I  have 
been  telling  of  fellowship  to  you  ?  Yea, 
forsooth,  I  deem  ye  wot  well,  that  it  is  for 
this  cause,  that  ye  might  bethink  you  of  your 
fellowship  with  the  men  of  Essex.* 

His  last  word  let  loose  the  shout  that  had 
been  long  on  all  men's  lips,  and  great  and  fierce 
it  was  as  it  rang  shattering  through  the  quiet 
upland  village.  But  John  Ball  held  up  his 
hand,  and  the  shout  was  one  and  no  more. 

Then  he  spoke  again : 

'  Men  of  Kent,  I  wot  well  that  ye  are  not 
so  hard  bested  as  those  of  other  shires,  by 
the  token  of  the  day  when  behind  the  screen 
of  leafy  boughs  ye  met  Duke  William  with 
bill  and  bow  as  he  wended  Londonward 
from  that  woeful  field  of  Senlac ;  but  I  have 
told  of  fellowship,  and  ye  have  hearkened 
and  understood  what  the  Holy  Church  is, 
whereby  ye  know  that  ye  are  fellows  of  the 
saints  in  heaven  and  the  poor  men  of  Essex ; 
and  as  one  day  the  saints  shall  call  you  to 
the  heavenly  feast,  so  now  do  the  poor  men 
call  you  to  the  battle. 


39 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

'  Men  of  Kent,  ye  dwell  fairly  here,  and 
your  houses  are  framed  of  stout  oak  beams, 
and  your  own  lands  ye  till ;  unless  some 
accursed  lawyer  with  his  false  lying  sheep- 
skin and  forged  custom  of  the  Devil's  Manor 
hath  stolen  it  from  you ;  but  in  Essex  slaves 
they  be  and  villeins,  and  worse  they  shall 
be,  and  the  lords  swear  that  ere  a  year  be 
over  ox  and  horse  shall  go  free  in  Essex, 
and  man  and  woman  shall  draw  the  team 
and  the  plough ;  and  north  away  in  the  east 
countries  dwell  men  in  poor  halls  of  wattled 
reeds  and  mud,  and  the  north-east  wind  from 
off  the  fen  whistles  through  them ;  and  poor 
they  be  to  the  letter;  and  there  him  whom 
the  lord  spareth,  the  bailiff  squeezeth,  and 
him  whom  the  bailiff  forgetteth,  the  Easter- 
ling  Chapman  sheareth ;  yet  be  these  stout 
men  and  valiant,  and  your  very  brethren. 

'  And  yet  if  there  be  any  man  here  so  base 
as  to  think  that  a  small  matter,  let  him  look 
to  it  that  if  these  necks  abide  under  the 
yoke,  Kent  shall  sweat  for  it  ere  it  be  long ; 
and  ye  shall  lose  acre  and  close  and  wood- 
land, and  be  servants  in  your  own  houses, 
and  your  sons  shall  be  the  lords'  lads,  and 
your  daughters  their  lemans,  and  ye  shall  buy 
a  bold  word  with  many  stripes,  and  an  honest 
deed  with  a  leap  from  the  gallows-tree. 

'  Bethink  ye,  too,  that  ye  have  no  longer 


40 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

to  deal  with  Duke  William,  who,  if  he  were 
a  thief  and  a  cruel  lord,  was  yet  a  prudent 
man  and  a  wise  warrior ;  but  cruel  are  these, 
and  headstrong,  yea,  thieves  and  fools  in 
one  —  and  ye  shall  lay  their  heads  in  the 
dust.' 

A  shout  would  have  arisen  again,  but  his 
eager  voice  rising  higher  yet,  restrained  it  as 
he  said : 

'  And  how  shall  it  be  then  when  these  are 
gone  ?  What  else  shall  ye  lack  when  ye  lack 
masters  ?  Ye  shall  not  lack  for  the  fields  ye 
have  tilled,  nor  the  houses  ye  have  built,  nor 
the  cloth  ye  have  woven ;  all  these  shall  be 
yours,  and  whatso  ye  will  of  all  that  the  earth 
beareth ;  then  shall  no  man  mow  the  deep 
grass  for  another,  while  his  own  kine  lack 
cow-meat;  and  he  that  soweth  shall  reap, 
and  the  reaper  shall  eat  in  fellowship  the 
harvest  that  in  fellowship  he  hath  won;  and 
he  that  buildeth  a  house  shall  dwell  in  it 
with  those  that  he  biddeth  of  his  free  will ; 
and  the  tithe  barn  shall  garner  the  wheat 
for  all  men  to  eat  of  when  the  seasons  are 
untoward,  and  the  rain-drift  hideth  the 
sheaves  in  August;  and  all  shall  be  without 
money  and  without  price.  Faithfully  and 
merrily  then  shall  all  men  keep  the  holidays 
of  the  Church  in  peace  of  body  and  joy  of 
heart.     And   man  shall  help   man,  and  the 


4« 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

saints  in  heaven  shall  be  glad,  because  men 
no  more  fear  each  other;  and  the  churl  shall 
be  ashamed,  and  shall  hide  his  churlishness 
till  it  be  gone,  and  he  be  no  more  a  churl; 
and  fellowship  shall  be  established  in  heaven 
and  on  the  earth.' 


42 


THEY  HEAR  TIDINGS  OF  BATTLE  AND  MAKE 
THEM   READY 

HE  left  off  as  one  who  had  yet  something 
else  to  say ;  and,  indeed,  I  thought  he 
would  give  us  some  word  as  to  the  trysting- 
place,  and  whither  the  army  was  to  go  from 
it ;  because  it  was  now  clear  to  me  that  this 
gathering  was  but  a  band  of  an  army.  But 
much  happened  before  John  Ball  spoke  again 
from  the  cross,  and  it  was  on  this  wise. 

When  there  was  silence  after  the  last 
shout  that  the  crowd  had  raised  a  while  ago, 
I  thought  I  heard  a  thin  sharp  noise  far 
away,  somewhat  to  the  north  of  the  cross, 
which  I  took  rather  for  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet  or  horn,  than  for  the  voice  of  a  man 
or  any  beast.  Will  Green  also  seemed  to 
have  heard  it,  for  he  turned  his  head  sharply 
and  then  back  again,  and  looked  keenly  into 
the  crowd  as  though  seeking  to  catch  some 
one's  eye.  There  was  a  very  tall  man  stand- 
ing by  the  prisoner  on  the  horse  near  the 
outskirts  of  the  crowd,  and  holding  his  bridle. 
This  man,  who  was  well-armed,  I  saw  look 
up  and  say  something  to  the  prisoner,  who 
stooped  down  and  seemed  to  whisper  him  in 
turn.  The  tall  man  nodded  his  head  and 
the  prisoner  got  off  his  horse,  which  was  a 
cleaner-limbed,  better-built  beast   than   the 


43 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

Others  belonging  to  the  band,  and  the  tall 
man  quietly  led  him  a  little  way  from  the 
crowd,  mounted  him,  and  rode  oS  northward 
at  a  smart  pace. 

Will  Green  looked  on  sharply  at  all  this, 
and  when  the  man  rode  off,  smiled  as  one 
who  is  content,  and  deems  that  all  is  going 
well,  and  settled  himself  down  again  to  listen 
to  the  priest. 

But  now  when  John  Ball  had  ceased  speak- 
ing, and  after  another  shout,  and  a  hum  of 
excited  pleasure  and  hope  that  followed  it, 
there  was  silence  again,  and  as  the  priest 
addressed  himself  to  speaking  once  more,  he 
paused  and  turned  his  head  towards  the  mnd, 
as  if  he  heard  something,  which  certainly  I 
heard,  and  belike  every  one  in  the  throng, 
though  it  was  not  over-loud,  far  as  sounds 
carry  in  such  clear  quiet  evenings.  It  was 
the  thump-a-thump  of  a  horse  drawing  near 
at  a  hand-gallop  along  the  grassy  upland 
road;  and  I  knew  well  it  was  the  tall  man 
coming  back  with  tidings,  the  purport  of 
which  I  could  well  guess. 

I  looked  up  at  Will  Green's  face.  He 
was  smiling  as  one  pleased,  and  said  softly 
as  he  nodded  to  me,  'Yea,  shall  we  see  the 
grey  goose  fly  this  eve  ? ' 

But  John  Ball  said  in  a  great  voice  from 
the  cross,  '  Hear  ye  the  tidings  on  the  way, 


44 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

fellows !  Hold  ye  together  and  look  to  your 
gear;  yet  hurry  not,  for  no  great  matter 
shall  this  be.  I  wot  well  there  is  little  force 
between  Canterbury  and  Kingston,  for  the 
lords  are  looking  north  of  Thames  toward 
Wat  Tyler  and  his  men.  Yet  well  it  is,  well 
it  is!' 

The  crowd  opened  and  spread  out  a  little, 
and  the  men  moved  about  in  it,  some  tight- 
ening a  girdle,  some  getting  their  side  arms 
more  within  reach  of  their  right  hands,  and 
those  who  had  bows  stringing  them. 

Will  Green  set  hand  and  foot  to  the  great 
shapely  piece  of  polished  red  yew,  with  its 
shining  horn  tips,  which  he  carried,  and  bent 
it  with  no  seeming  effort;  then  he  reached 
out  his  hand  over  his  shoulder  and  drew 
out  a  long  arrow,  smooth,  white,  beautifully 
balanced,  with  a  barbed  iron  head  at  one  end, 
a  horn  nock  and  three  strong  goose  feathers 
at  the  other.  He  held  it  loosely  between  the 
finger  and  thumb  of  his  right  hand,  and  there 
he  stood  with  a  thoughtful  look  on  his  face, 
and  in  his  hands  one  of  the  most  terrible 
weapons  which  a  strong  man  has  ever  carried, 
the  English  long-bow  and  cloth-yard  shaft. 

But  all  this  while  the  sound  of  the  horses' 
hoofs  was  growing  nearer,  and  presently 
from  the  corner  of  the  road  amidst  the 
orchards  broke  out  our  long  friend,  his  face 


45 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

red  in  the  sun  near  sinking  now.  He  waved 
his  right  hand  as  he  came  in  sight  of  us,  and 
sang  out,  *  Bills  and  bows  1  bills  and  bows ! ' 
and  the  whole  throng  turned  towards  him 
and  raised  a  great  shout. 

He  reined  up  at  the  edge  of  the  throng, 
and  spoke  in  a  loud  voice,  so  that  all  might 
hear  him : 

•Fellows,  these  are  the  tidings;  even  while 
our  priest  was  speaking  we  heard  a  horn 
blow  far  off ;  so  I  bade  the  sergeant  we  have 
taken,  and  who  is  now  our  fellow-in-arms,  to 
tell  me  where  away  it  was  that  there  would 
be  folk  a-gathering,  and  what  they  were ;  and 
he  did  me  to  wit  that  mayhappen  Sir  John 
Newton  was  stirring  from  Rochester  Castle ; 
or,  maybe  it  was  the  sheriff  and  Rafe  Hopton 
with  him ;  so  I  rode  off  what  I  might  towards 
Hartlip,  and  I  rode  warily,  and  that  was  well, 
for  as  I  came  through  a  little  wood  between 
Hartlip  and  Guildstead,  I  saw  beyond  it  a 
gleam  of  steel,  and  lo  in  the  field  there 
a  company,  and  a  pennon  of  Rafe  Hopton's 
arms,  and  that  is  blue  and  thereon  three 
silver  fish :  and  a  pennon  of  the  sheriff's 
arms,  and  that  is  a  green  tree ;  and  withal 
another  pennon  of  three  red  kine,  and  whose 
they  be  I  know  not.' 

I  Probably  one  of  the  Calverlys,  a  Cheshire  family, 
one  of  whom  was  a  noted  captain  in  the  French  wars. 


46 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

'There  tied  I  my  horse  in  the  middle  of 
the  wood,  and  myself  I  crept  along  the  dyke 
to  see  more  and  to  hear  somewhat;  and  no 
talk  I  heard  to  tell  of  save  at  whiles  a  big 
knight  talking  to  five  or  six  others,  and 
saying  somewhat,  wherein  came  the  words 
London  and  Nicholas  Bramber,  and  King 
Richard ;  but  I  saw  that  of  men-at-arms  and 
sergeants  there  might  be  a  hundred,  and  of 
bows  not  many,  but  of  those  outland  arba- 
lests maybe  a  fifty;  and  so,  what  with  one 
and  another  of  servants  and  tipstaves  and 
lads,  some  three  hundred,  well  armed,  and 
the  men-at-arms  of  the  best.  Forsooth,  my 
masters,  there  had  I  been  but  a  minute,  ere 
the  big  knight  broke  o£E  his  talk,  and  cried 
out  to  the  music  to  blow  up,  "  And  let  us  go 
look  on  these  villeins,"  said  he;  and  withal 
the  men  began  to  gather  in  a  due  and  ordered 
company,  and  their  faces  turned  hitherward ; 
forsooth,  I  got  to  my  horse,  and  led  him  out 
of  the  wood  on  the  other  side,  and  so  to 
saddle  and  away  along  the  green  roads; 
neither  was  I  seen  or  chased.  So  look  ye 
to  it,  my  masters,  for  these  men  will  be 
coming  to  speak  with  us ;  nor  is  there  need 
for  haste,  but  rather  for  good  speed ;  for  in 
some  twenty  or  thirty  minutes  will  be  more 
tidings  to  hand.' 

By  this  time  one  of  our  best-armed  men 


47 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALI, 

had  got  through  the  throng  and  was  standing 
on  the  cross  beside  John  Ball.  When  the 
long  man  had  done,  there  was  confused  noise 
of  talk  for  a  while,  and  the  throng  spread 
itself  out  more  and  more,  but  not  in  a  disor- 
derly manner ;  the  bowmen  drawing  together 
toward  the  outside,  and  the  billmen  forming 
behind  them.  Will  Green  was  still  standing 
beside  me  and  had  hold  of  my  arm,  as  though 
he  knew  both  where  he  and  I  were  to  go. 

'  Fellows,'  quoth  the  captain  from  the 
cross,  '  belike  this  stour  shall  not  live  to  be 
older  than  the  day,  if  ye  get  not  into  a  plump 
together  for  their  arbalestiers  to  shoot  bolts 
into,  and  their  men-at-arms  to  thrust  spears 
into.  Get  you  to  the  edge  of  the  crofts  and 
spread  out  there  six  feet  between  man  and 
man,  and  shoot,  ye  bowmen,  from  the  hedges, 
and  ye  with  the  staves  keep  your  heads  below 
the  level  of  the  hedges,  or  else  for  all  they 
be  thick  a  bolt  may  win  its  way  in.' 

He  grinned  as  he  said  this,  and  there  was 
laughter  enough  in  the  throng  to  have  done 
honour  to  a  better  joke. 

Then  he  sung  out,  'Hob  Wright,  Rafe 
Wood,  John  Pargetter,  and  thou  Will  Green, 
bestir  ye  and  marshal  the  bow-shot ;  and  thou 
Nicholas  Woodyer  shall  be  under  me  Jack 
Straw  in  ordering  of  the  staves.  Gregory 
Tailor  and  John  Clerk,  fair  and  fine  are  ye 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

clad  in  the  arms  of  the  Canterbury  bailiffs ; 
ye  shall  shine  from  afar;  go  ye  with  the 
banner  into  the  highway,  and  the  bows  on 
either  side  shall  ward  you ;  yet  jump,  lads, 
and  over  the  hedge  with  you  when  the  bolts 
begin  to  fly  your  way!  Take  heed,  good 
fellows  all,  that  our  business  is  to  bestride 
the  highway,  and  not  let  them  get  in  on  our 
flank  the  while ;  so  half  to  the  right,  half  to 
the  left  of  the  highway.  Shoot  straight  and 
strong,  and  waste  no  breath  with  noise ;  let 
the  loose  of  the  bow-string  cry  for  you  !  and 
look  you  I  think  it  no  loss  of  manhood  to 
cover  your  bodies  with  tree  and  bush ;  for 
one  of  us  who  know  is  worth  a  hundred  of 
those  proud  fools.  To  it,  lads,  and  let  them 
see  what  the  grey  goose  bears  between  his 
wings  1  Abide  us  here,  brother  John  Ball, 
and  pray  for  us  if  thou  wilt;  but  for  me,  if 
God  will  not  do  for  Jack  Straw  what  Jack 
Straw  would  do  for  God  were  he  in  like  case, 
I  can  see  no  help  for  it.' 

•  Yea,  forsooth,'  said  the  priest,  '  here  will 
I  abide  you  my  fellows  if  ye  come  back ;  or 
if  ye  come  not  back,  here  will  I  abide  the  foe. 
Depart,  and  the  blessing  of  the  Fellowship 
be  with  you.* 

Down  then  leapt  Jack  Straw  from  the 
cross,  and  the  whole  throng  set  off  without 
noise  or  hurry,  soberly  and  steadily  in  out- 


49 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

ward  seeming.  Will  Green  led  me  by  the 
hand  as  if  I  were  a  boy,  yet  nothing  he  said, 
being  forsooth  intent  on  his  charge.  We 
were  some  four  hundred  men  in  all;  but  I 
said  to  myself  that  without  some  advantage 
of  the  ground  we  were  lost  men  before  the 
men-at-arms  that  long  Gregory  Tailor  had 
told  us  of;  for  I  had  not  seen  as  yet  the 
yard-long  shaft  at  its  work. 

We  and  somewhat  more  than  half  of  our 
band  turned  into  the  orchards  on  the  left  of 
the  road,  through  which  the  level  rays  of  the 
low  sun  shone  brightly.  The  others  took  up 
their  position  on  the  right  side  of  it.  We 
kept  pretty  near  to  the  road  till  we  had  got 
through  all  the  closes  save  the  last,  where 
we  were  brought  up  by  a  hedge  and  a  dyke, 
beyond  which  lay  a  wide-open  nearly  treeless 
space,  not  of  tillage,  as  at  the  other  side  of 
the  place,  but  of  pasture,  the  common  grazing 
ground  of  the  township.  A  little  stream 
wound  about  through  the  ground,  with  a  few 
willows  here  and  there;  there  was  only  a 
thread  of  water  in  it  in  this  hot  summer  tide, 
but  its  course  could  easily  be  traced  by  the 
deep  blue-green  of  the  rushes  that  grew 
plenteously  in  the  bed.  Geese  were  lazily 
wandering  about  and  near  this  brook,  and 
a  herd  of  cows,  accompanied  by  the  town 
bull,  were  feeding  on  quietly,  their  heads  all 


5° 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

turned  one  way;  while  half  a  dozen  calves 
marched  close  together  side  by  side  like  a 
plump  of  soldiers,  their  tails  swinging  in 
a  kind  of  measure  to  keep  off  the  flies,  of 
which  there  was  great  plenty.  Three  or 
four  lads  and  girls  were  sauntering  about, 
heeding  or  not  heeding  the  cattle.  They 
looked  up  toward  us  as  we  crowded  into  the 
last  close,  and  slowly  loitered  off  toward 
the  village.  Nothing  looked  like  battle  ;  yet 
battle  sounded  in  the  air;  for  now  we  heard 
the  beat  of  the  horse-hoofs  of  the  men-at- 
arms  coming  on  towards  as  like  the  rolling 
of  distant  thunder,  and  growing  louder  and 
louder  every  minute ;  we  were  none  too  soon 
in  turning  to  face  them.  Jack  Straw  was  on 
our  side  of  the  road,  and  with  a  few  gestures 
and  a  word  or  two  he  got  his  men  into  their 
places.  Six  archers  lined  the  hedge  along 
the  road  where  the  banner  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  rising  above  the  grey  leaves  of  the 
apple-trees,  challenged  the  new-comers;  and 
of  the  billmen  also  he  kept  a  good  few  ready 
to  guard  the  road  in  case  the  enemy  should 
try  to  rush  it  with  the  horsemen.  The  road, 
not  being  a  Roman  one,  was,  you  must 
remember,  little  like  the  firm  smooth  country 
roads  that  you  are  used  to;  it  was  a  mere 
track  between  the  hedges  and  fields,  partly 
grass-grown,  and  cut  up  by  the  deejvsunk 


5' 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

ruts  hardened  by  the  drought  of  summer. 
There  was  a  stack  of  fagot  and  small  wood 
on  the  other  side,  and  our  men  threw  them- 
selves upon  it  and  set  to  work  to  stake  the 
road  across  for  a  rough  defence  against  the 
horsemen. 

What  befell  more  on  the  road  itself  I 
had  not  much  time  to  note,  for  our  bowmen 
spread  themselves  out  along  the  hedge  that 
looked  into  the  pasture-field,  leaving  some 
six  feet  between  man  and  man ;  the  rest  of 
the  billmen  went  along  with  the  bowmen, 
and  halted  in  clumps  of  some  half-dozen 
along  their  line,  holding  themselves  ready  to 
help  the  bowmen  if  the  enemy  should  run  up 
under  their  shafts,  or  to  run  on  to  lengthen 
the  line  in  case  they  should  try  to  break  in 
on  our  flank.  The  hedge  in  front  of  us  was 
of  quick.  It  had  been  strongly  plashed  in 
the  past  February,  and  was  stiff  and  stout. 
It  stood  on  a  low  bank ;  moreover,  the  level 
of  the  orchard  was  some  thirty  inches  higher 
than  that  of  the  field,  and  the  ditch  some 
two  foot  deeper  than  the  face  of  the  field. 
The  field  went  winding  round  to  beyond  the 
church,  making  a  quarter  of  a  circle  about 
the  village,  and  at  the  western  end  of  it  were 
the  butts  whence  the  folk  were  coming  from 
shooting  when  I  first  came  into  the  village 
street. 


52 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

Altogether,  to  me  who  knew  nothing  of 
war  the  place  seemed  defensible  enough.  I 
have  said  that  the  road  down  which  Long 
Gregory  came  with  his  tidings  went  north; 
and  that  was  its  general  direction ;  but  its 
first  reach  was  nearly  east,  so  that  the  low 
sun  was  not  in  the  eyes  of  any  of  us,  and 
where  Will  Green  took  his  stand,  and  T  with 
him,  it  was  nearly  at  our  backs. 


53 


VI 

THE   BATTLE   AT  THE   TOWNSHIP'S   END 

OUR  men  had  got  into  their  places  lei- 
surely and  coolly  enough,  and  with  no 
lack  of  jesting  and  laughter.  As  we  went 
along  the  hedge  by  the  road,  the  leaders 
tore  off  leafy  twigs  from  the  low  oak  bushes 
therein,  and  set  them  for  a  rallying  sign  in 
their  hats  and  head-pieces,  and  two  or  three 
of  them  had  horns  for  blowing. 

Will  Green,  when  he  got  into  his  place, 
which  was  some  thirty  yards  from  where  Jack 
Straw  and  the  billmen  stood  in  the  corner 
of  the  two  hedges,  the  road  hedge  and  the 
hedge  between  the  close  and  field,  looked  to 
right  and  left  of  him  a  moment,  then  turned 
to  the  man  on  the  left  and  said : 

'  Look  you,  mate,  when  you  hear  our 
horns  blow  ask  no  more  questions,  but 
shoot  straight  and  strong  at  whatso  cometh 
towards  us,  till  ye  hear  more  tidings  from 
Jack  Straw  or  from  me.  Pass  that  word 
onward.' 

Then  he  looked  at  me  and  said : 

'  Now,  lad  from  Essex,  thou  hadst  best  sit 
down  out  of  the  way  at  once :  forsooth  I 
wot  not  why  I  brought  thee  hither.  Wilt 
thou  not  back  to  the  cross,  for  thou  art 
little  of  a  fighting-man  ? ' 


54 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

*Nay,'  said  I,  *I  would  see  the  play. 
What  shall  come  of  it? ' 

•Little,'  said  he;  *we  shall  slay  a  horse 
or  twain  maybe.  I  will  tell  thee,  since  thou 
hast  not  seen  a  fight  belike,  as  I  have  seen 
some,  that  these  men-at-arms  cannot  run 
fast  either  to  the  play  or  from  it,  if  they  be 
afoot ;  and  if  they  come  on  a  horseback, 
what  shall  hinder  me  to  put  a  shaft  into  the 
poor  beast?  But  down  with  thee  on  the 
daisies,  for  some  shot  there  will  be  first.' 

As  he  spoke  he  was  pulling  off  his  belts 
and  other  gear,  and  his  coat,  which  done,  he 
laid  his  quiver  on  the  ground,  girt  him  again, 
did  his  axe  and  buckler  on  to  his  girdle,  and 
hung  up  his  other  attire  on  the  nearest  tree 
behind  us.  Then  he  opened  his  quiver  and 
took  out  of  it  some  two  dozen  of  arrows, 
which  he  stuck  in  the  ground  beside  him 
ready  to  his  hand.  Most  of  the  bowmen 
within  sight  were  doing  the  like. 

As  I  glanced  toward  the  houses  I  saw 
three  or  four  bright  figures  moving  through 
the  orchards,  and  presently  noted  that  they 
were  women,  all  clad  more  or  less  like  the 
girl  in  the  Rose,  except  that  two  of  them 
wore  white  coifs  on  their  heads.  Their 
errand  there  was  clear,  for  each  carried  a 
bundle  of  arrows  under  her  arm. 

One   of  them  came  straight   up  to  Will 


55 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

Green,  and  I  could  see  at  once  that  she  was 
his  daughter.  She  was  tall  and  strongly 
made,  with  black  hair  like  her  father,  some- 
what comely,  though  no  great  beauty ;  but 
as  they  met,  her  eyes  smiled  even  more  than 
her  mouth,  and  made  her  face  look  very 
sweet  and  kind,  and  the  smile  was  answered 
back  in  a  way  so  quaintly  like  to  her  father's 
face,  that  I  too  smiled  for  goodwill  and 
pleasure. 

'  Well,  well,  lass,'  s^d  he,  '  dost  thou  think 
that  here  is  Crecy  field  toward,  that  ye  bring 
all  this  artillery  ?  Turn  back,  my  girl,  and 
set  the  pot  on  the  fire;  for  that  shall  we 
need  when  we  come  home,  I  and  this  ballad- 
maker  here.' 

'Nay,'  she  said,  nodding  kindly  at  me,  'if 
this  is  to  be  no  Crecy,  then  may  I  stop  to 
see,  as  well  as  the  ballad-maker,  since  he 
hath  neither  sword  nor  staff  ? ' 

'  Sweetling,'  he  said,  '  get  thee  home  in 
haste.  This  play  is  but  little,  yet  mightst 
thou  be  hurt  in  it;  and  trust  me  the  time 
may  come,  sweetheart,  when  even  thou  and 
such  as  thou  shalt  hold  a  sword  or  a  staff. 
Ere  the  moon  throws  a  shadow  we  shall  be 
back.' 

She  turned  away  lingering,  not  without 
tears  on  her  face,  laid  the  sheaf  of  arrows 
at  the  foot    of  the   tree,  and   hastened   off 


S6 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

through  the  orchard.  I  was  going  to  say 
something,  when  Will  Green  held  up  his 
hand  as  who  would  bid  us  hearken.  The 
noise  of  the  horse-hoofs,  after  growing 
nearer  and  nearer,  had  ceased  suddenly,  and 
a  confused  murmur  of  voices  had  taken  the 
place  of  it. 

'  Get  thee  down,  and  take  cover,  old  lad,' 
said  Will  Green ;  '  the  dance  will  soon  begin, 
and  ye  shall  hear  the  music  presently.' 

Sure  enough  as  I  slipped  down  by  the 
hedge  close  to  which  I  had  been  standing,  I 
heard  the  harsh  twang  of  the  bowstrings, 
one,  two,  three,  almost  together,  from  the 
road,  and  even  the  whew  of  the  shafts, 
though  that  was  drowned  in  a  moment  by 
a  confused  but  loud  and  threatening  shout 
from  the  other  side,  and  again  the  bow- 
strings twanged,  and  this  time  a  far-off 
clash  of  arms  followed,  and  therewithal  that 
cry  of  a  strong  man  that  comes  without  his 
will,  and  is  so  different  from  his  wonted 
voice,  that  one  has  a  guess  thereby  of  the 
change  that  death  is.  Then  for  a  while  was 
almost  silence;  nor  did  our  horns  blow  up, 
though  some  half-dozen  of  the  billmen  had 
leapt  into  the  road  when  the  bows  first  shot. 
But  presently  came  a  great  blare  of  trumpets 
and  horns  from  ihe  other  side,  and  therewith 
as  it  were  a  river  of  steel  and  bright  coats 


57 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

poured  into  the  field  before  us,  and  still 
their  horns  blew  as  they  spread  out  toward 
the  left  of  our  line;  the  cattle  in  the  pasture- 
field,  heretofore  feeding  quietly,  seemed 
frightened  silly  by  the  sudden  noise,  and 
ran  about  tail  in  air  and  lowing  loudly ;  the 
old  bull  with  his  head  a  little  lowered,  and 
his  stubborn  legs  planted  firmly,  growling 
threateningly;  while  the  geese  about  the 
brook  waddled  away  gobbling  and  squeak- 
ing; all  which  seemed  so  strange  to  us 
along  with  the  threat  of  sudden  death  that 
rang  out  from  the  bright  array  over  against 
us,  that  we  laughed  outright,  the  most  of 
us,  and  Will  Green  put  down  his  head  in 
mockery  of  the  bull  and  grunted  like  him, 
whereat  we  laughed  yet  more.  He  turned 
round  to  me  as  he  nocked  his  arrow,  and  said : 

'  I  would  they  were  just  fifty  paces  nigher, 
and  they  move  not.  Ho!  Jack  Straw, 
shall  we  shoot  ? ' 

For  the  latter-named  was  nigh  us  now; 
he  shook  his  head  and  said  nothing  as  he 
stood  looking  at  the  enemy's  line. 

'  Fear  not  but  they  are  the  right  folk, 
Jack,'  quoth  Will  Green. 

'  Yea,  yea,'  said  he,  '  but  abide  awhile ; 
they  could  make  nought  of  the  highway, 
and  two  of  their  sergeants  had  a  message 
from   the   grey-goose   feather.      Abide,   for 


58 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

they  have  not  crossed  the  road  to  our  right 
hand,  and  belike  have  not  seen  our  fellows  on 
the  other  side,  who  are  now  for  a  bushment 
to  them.' 

I  looked  hard  at  the  man.  He  was  a 
tall,  wiry,  and  broad-shouldered  fellow,  clad 
in  a  handsome  armour  of  bright  steel  that 
certainly  had  not  been  made  for  a  yeoman, 
but  over  it  he  had  a  common  linen  smock- 
frock  or  gabardine,  like  our  field  workmen 
wear  now  or  used  to  wear,  and  in  his  helmet 
he  carried  instead  of  a  feather  a  wisp  of 
wheaten  straw.  He  bore  a  heavy  axe  in 
his  hand  besides  the  sword  he  was  girt  with, 
and  round  his  neck  hung  a  great  horn  for 
blowing.  I  should  say  that  I  knew  that 
there  were  at  least  three  '  Jack  Straws ' 
among  the  fellowship  of  the  discontented, 
one  of  whom  was  over  in  Essex. 

As  we  waited  there,  every  bowman  with 
his  shaft  nocked  on  the  string,  there  was  a 
movement  in  the  line  opposite,  and  presently 
came  from  it  a  little  knot  of  three  men,  the 
middle  one  on  horseback,  the  other  two 
armed  with  long-handled  glaives;  all  three 
well  muffled  up  in  armour.  As  they  came 
nearer  I  could  see  that  the  horseman  had 
a  tabard  over  his  armour,  gaily  embroidered 
with  a  green  tree  on  a  gold  ground,  and  in 
his  hand  a  trumpet. 


59 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

'They  are  come  to  summon  us.  Wilt 
thou  that  he  speak,  Jack?'   said  Will  Green. 

'  Nay,'  said  the  other ;  '  yet  shall  he  have 
warning  first.     Shoot  when  my  horn  blows ! ' 

And  therewith  he  came  up  to  the  hedge, 
climbed  over,  slowly  because  of  his  armour, 
and  stood  some  dozen  yards  out  in  the  field. 
The  man  on  horseback  put  his  trumpet  to 
his  mouth  and  blew  a  long  blast,  and  then 
took  a  scroll  into  his  hand  and  made  as  if 
he  were  going  to  read ;  but  Jack  Straw  lifted 
up  his  voice  and  cried  out : 

'  Do  it  not,  or  thou  art  but  dead !  We 
will  have  no  accursed  lawyers  and  their 
sheepskins  here !  Go  back  to  those  that 
sent  thee ' 

But  the  man  broke  in  in  a  loud  harsh 
voice : 

•  Ho !  YE  People  !  what  will  ye  gathering 
in  arms  ? ' 

Then  cried  Jack  Straw: 

'  Sir  Fool,  hold  your  peace  till  ye  have 
heard  me,  or  else  we  shoot  at  once.  Go 
back  to  those  that  sent  thee,  and  tell  them 
that  we  free  men  of  Kent  are  on  the  way  to 
London  to  speak  with  King  Richard,  and  to 
tell  him  that  which  he  wots  not;  to  wit, 
that  there  is  a  certain  sort  of  fools  and 
traitors  to  the  realm  who  would  put  collars 
on  our  necks  and  make  beasts  of  us,  and 


60 


A  DREAM   OF  JOHN  BALL 

that  it  is  his  right  and  his  devoir  to  do  as  he 
swore  when  he  was  crowned  and  anointed  at 
Westminster  on  the  Stone  of  Doom,  and 
gainsay  these  thieves  and  traitors ;  and  if  he 
be  too  weak  then  shall  we  help  him ;  and  if 
he  will  not  be  king,  then  shall  we  have  one 
who  will  be,  and  that  is  the  King's  Son  of 
Heaven.  Now,  therefore,  if  any  withstand 
us  on  our  lawful  errand  as  we  go  to  speak 
with  our  own  king  and  lord,  let  him  look  to 
it.  Bear  back  this  word  to  them  that  sent 
thee.  But  for  thee,  hearken,  thou  bastard 
of  an  inky  sheepskin  I  get  thee  gone  and 
tarry  not;  three  times  shall  I  lift  up  my 
hand,  and  the  third  time  look  to  thyself,  for 
then  shall  thou  hear  the  loose  of  our 
bowstrings,  and  after  that  nought  else  till 
thou  hearest  the  devil  bidding  thee  welcome 
to  hell ! ' 

Our  fellows  shouted,  but  the  summoner 
began  again,  yet  in  a  quavering  voice : 

'Hoi  YE  People!  What  will  ye  gather- 
ing in  arms  ?  Wot  ye  not  that  ye  are  doing 
or  shall  do  great  harm,  loss  and  hurt  to  the 
king's  lieges ' 

He  stopped ;  Jack  Straw's  hand  was 
lowered  for  the  second  time.  He  looked  to 
his  men  right  and  left,  and  then  turned  rein 
and  turned  tail,  and  scuttled  back  to  the 
main  body  at  his  swiftest.     Huge  laughter 


6i 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

rattled  out  all  along  our  line  as  Jack  Straw 
climbed  back  into  the  orchard  grinning  also. 

Then  we  noted  more  movement  in  the 
enemy's  line.  They  were  spreading  the  arch- 
ers and  arbalestiers  to  our  left,  and  the  men- 
at-arms  and  others  also  spread  somewhat 
under  the  three  pennons  of  which  Long 
Gregory  had  told  us,  and  which  were 
plain  enough  to  us  in  the  clear  evening. 
Presently  the  moving  line  faced  us,  and  the 
archers  set  off  at  a  smart  pace  toward  us, 
the  men-at-arms  holding  back  a  little  behind 
them.  I  knew  now  that  they  had  been 
within  bow-shot  all  along,  but  our  men  were 
loth  to  shoot  before  their  first  shots  would 
tell,  like  those  half-dozen  in  the  road  when, 
as  they  told  me  afterwards,  a  plump  of  their 
men-at-arms  had  made  a  show  of  falling  on. 

But  now  as  soon  as  those  men  began  to 
move  on  us  directly  in  face,  Jack  Straw  put 
his  horn  to  his  lips  and  blew  a  loud  rough 
blast  that  was  echoed  by  five  or  six  others 
along  the  orchard  hedge.  Every  man  had 
his  shaft  nocked  on  the  string;  I  watched 
them,  and  Will  Green  specially ;  he  and  his 
bow  and  its  string  seemed  all  of  a  piece,  so 
easily  by  seeming  did  he  draw  the  nock  of 
the  arrow  to  his  ear.  A  moment,  as  he  took 
his  aim,  and  then  —  O  then  I  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  awe  with  which  the  ancient 


62 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

poet  speaks  of  loose  of  the  god  Apollo's 
bow;  for  terrible  indeed  was  the  mingled 
sound  of  the  twanging  bowstring  and  the 
whirring  shaft  so  close  to  me. 

I  was  now  on  my  knees  right  in  front  of 
Will  and  saw  all  clearly  ;  the  arbalestiers  (for 
no  long-bow  men  were  over  against  our  stead) 
had  all  of  them  bright  head-pieces,  and  stout 
body-armour  of  boiled  leather  with  metal 
studs,  and  as  they  came  towards  us,  I  could 
see  over  their  shoulders  great  wooden  shields 
hanging  at  their  backs.  Further  to  our  left 
their  long-bow  men  had  shot  almost  as  soon 
as  ours,  and  I  heard  or  seemed  to  hear  the 
rush  of  the  arrows  through  the  apple-boughs 
and  a  man's  cry  therewith ;  but  with  us  the 
long-bow  had  been  before  the  cross-bow; 
one  of  the  arbalestiers  fell  outright,  his  great 
shield  clattering  down  on  him,  and  moved 
no  more  ;  while  three  others  were  hit  and 
were  crawling  to  the  rear.  The  rest  had 
shouldered  their  bows  and  were  aiming,  but 
I  thought  unsteadily;  and  before  the  triggers 
were  drawn  again  Will  Green  had  nocked 
and  loosed,  and  not  a  few  others  of  our  folk ; 
then  came  the  wooden  hail  of  the  bolts 
rattling  through  the  boughs,  but  all  overhead 
and  no  one  hit. 

The  next  time  Will  Green  nocked  his 
arrow  he  drew  with  a  great  shout,  which  all 


63 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

our  fellows  took  up ;  for  the  arbalestiers 
instead  of  turning  about  in  their  places  covered 
by  their  great  shields  and  winding  up  their 
cross-bows  for  a  second  shot,  as  is  the  custom 
of  such  soldiers,  ran  huddling  together  toward 
their  men-at-arms,  our  arrows  driving  thump- 
thump  into  their  shields  as  they  ran  :  I  saw 
four  lying  on  the  field  dead  or  sore  wounded. 

But  our  archers  shouted  again,  and  kept 
on  each  plucking  the  arrows  from  the  ground, 
and  nocking  and  loosing  swiftly  but  deliber- 
ately at  the  line  before  them;  indeed  now 
was  the  time  for  these  terrible  bowmen,  for  as 
Will  Green  told  me  afterwards  they  always 
reckoned  to  kill  through  cloth  or  leather  at 
five  hundred  yards,  and  they  had  let  the 
cross-bow  men  come  nearly  within  three 
hundred,  and  these  were  now  all  mingled 
and  muddled  up  with  the  men-at-arms  at 
scant  five  hundred  yards'  distance ;  and 
belike,  too,  the  latter  were  not  treating  them 
too  well,  but  seemed  to  be  belabouring 
them  with  their  spear-staves  in  their  anger  at 
the  poorness  of  the  play ;  so  that  as  Will 
Green  said  it  was  like  shooting  at  hay-ricks. 

All  this  you  must  understand  lasted  but  a 
few  minutes,  and  when  our  men  had  been 
shooting  quite  coolly,  like  good  workmen  at 
peaceful  work,  for  a  few  minutes  more,  the 
enemy's   line   seemed   to    clear   somewhat ; 


64 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

the  pennon  with  the  three  red  kine  showed 
in  front  and  three  men  armed  from  head  to 
foot  in  gleaming  steel,  except  for  their  short 
coats  bright  with  heraldry,  were  with  it.  One 
of  them  (and  he  bore  the  three  kine  on  his 
coat)  turned  round  and  gave  some  word  of 
command,  and  an  angry  shout  went  up  from 
them,  and  they  came  on  steadily  towards  us, 
the  man  with  red  kine  on  his  coat  leading 
them,  a  great  naked  sword  in  his  hand  :  you 
must  note  that  they  were  all  on  foot ;  but  as 
they  drew  nearer  I  saw  their  horses  led  by 
grooms  and  pages  coming  on  slowly  behind 
them. 

Sooth  said  Will  Green  that  the  men-at- 
arms  run  not  fast  either  to  or  fro  the  fray ; 
they  came  on  no  faster  than  a  hasty  walk, 
their  arms  clashing  about  them  and  the 
twang  of  the  bows  and  whistle  of  the  arrows 
never  failing  all  the  while,  but  going  on  like 
the  push  of  the  westerly  gale,  as  from  time 
to  time  the  men-at-arms  shouted, '  Ha  I  ha  I 
out !  out !  Kentish  theives  I ' 

But  when  they  began  to  fall  on.  Jack  Straw 
shouted  out,  '  Bills  to  the  field !  bills  to  the 
field  I  • 

Then  all  our  billmen  ran  up  and  leapt  over 
the  hedge  into  the  meadow  and  stood  stoutly 
along  the  ditch  under  our  bows,  Jack  Straw 
in  the  forefront  handling  his  great  axe.   Then 


65 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

he  cast  it  into  his  left  hand,  caught  up  his 
horn  and  winded  it  loudly.  The  men-at- 
arms  drew  near  steadily,  some  fell  under  the 
arrow-storm,  but  not  a  many;  for  though 
the  target  was  big,  it  was  hard,  since  not 
even  the  cloth-yard  shaft  could  pierce  well- 
wrought  armour  of  plate,  and  there  was  much 
armour  among  them.  Withal  the  arbalestiers 
were  shooting  again,  but  high  and  at  a 
venture,  so  they  did  us  no  hurt. 

But  as  these  soldiers  made  wise  by  the 
French  war  were  now  drawing  near,  and  our 
bowmen  were  casting  down  their  bows  and 
drawing  their  short  swords,  or  handling  their 
axes,  as  did  Will  Green,  muttering,  '  Now 
must  Hob  Wright's  gear  end  this  play '  — 
while  this  was  a-doing,  lo,  on  a  sudden  a 
flight  of  arrows  from  our  right  on  the  flank 
of  the  sergeants'  array,  which  stayed  them 
somewhat ;  not  because  it  slew  many  men, 
but  because  they  began  to  bethink  them  that 
their  foes  were  many  and  all  around  them  ; 
then  the  road-hedge  on  the  right  seemed 
alive  with  armed  men,  for  whatever  could 
hold  sword  or  staff  amongst  us  was  there; 
every  bowman  also  leapt  our  orchard  hedge 
sword  or  axe  in  hand,  and  with  a  great 
shout,  billmen,  archers,  and  all,  ran  in  on 
them;  half-armed,  yea,  and  half-naked  some 
of  them ;  strong  and   stout   and   lithe   and 


66 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

light  withal,  the  wrath  of  battle  and  the  hope 
of  better  times  lifting  up  their  hearts  till 
nothing  could  withstand  them.  So  was  all 
mingled  together,  and  for  a  minute  or  two 
was  a  confused  clamour  over  which  rose  a 
clatter  like  the  riveting  of  iron  plates,  or  the 
noise  of  the  street  of  the  coppersmiths  at 
Florence  ;  then  the  throng  burst  open  and  the 
steel-clad  sergeants  and  squires  and  knights 
ran  huddling  and  shuffling  towards  their 
horses;  but  some  cast  down  their  weapons 
and  threw  up  their  hands  and  cried  for 
peace  and  ransom;  and  some  stood  and 
fought  desperately,  and  slew  some  till  they 
were  hammered  down  by  many  strokes,  and 
of  these  were  the  bailiffs  and  tipstaves, 
and  the  lawyers  and  their  men,  who  could 
not  run  and  hoped  for  no  mercy. 

I  looked  as  on  a  picture  and  wondered, 
and  my  mind  was  at  strain  to  remember 
something  forgotten,  which  yet  had  left  its 
mark  on  it.  I  heard  the  noise  of  the  horse- 
hoofs  of  the  fleeing  men-at-arms  (the  archers 
and  the  arbalestiers  had  scattered  before  the 
last  minutes  of  the  play),  I  heard  the  con- 
fused sound  of  laughter  and  rejoicing  down 
in  the  meadow,  and  close  by  me  the 
evening  wind  lifting  the  lighter  twigs  of 
the  trees,  and  far  away  the  many  noises  of 
the  quiet  country,  till  light  and  sound  both 


67 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

began  to  fade  from  me  and  I  saw  and  heard 
nothing. 

I  leapt  up  to  my  feet  presently  and  there 
was  Will  Gieen  before  me  as  I  had  first  seen 
him  in  the  street  with  coat  and  hood  and 
the  gear  at  his  girdle  and  his  unstrung  bow 
in  his  hand;  his  face  smiling  and  kind  again, 
but  maybe  a  thought  sad. 

'  Well,'  quoth  I,  '  What  is  the  tale  for  the 
ballad-maker?' 

'  As  Jack  Straw  said  it  would  be, '  said  he, 
'  "  the  end  of  the  day  and  the  end  of  the 
fray ;  " '  and  he  pointed  to  the  brave  show  of 
the  sky  over  the  sunken  sun ;  '  the  knights 
fled  and  the  sheriff  dead  :  two  of  the  lawyer 
kind  slain  afield,  and  one  hanged :  and  cruel 
was  he  to  make  them  cruel :  and  three 
bailiffs  knocked  on  the  head  —  stout  men, 
and  so  witless,  that  none  found  their  brains 
in  their  skulls  ;  and  five  arbalestiers  and  one 
archer  slain,  and  a  score  and  a  half  of  others, 
mostly  men  come  back  from  the  French 
wars,  men  of  the  Companions  there,  knowing 
no  other  craft  than  fighting  for  gold;  and 
this  is  the  end  they  are  paid  for.  Well, 
brother,  saving  the  lawyers  who  belike  had 
no  souls,  but  only  parchment  deeds  and 
libels  of  the  same,  God  rest  their  souls  I ' 

He  fell  a-musing  ;  but  I  said,  '  And  of  our 
Fellowship  were  any  slain  ? ' 


68 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

'  Two  good  men  of  the  township,'  he  said, 
'  Hob  Horner  and  Antony  Webber,  were 
slain  outright,  Hob  with  a  shaft  and  Antony 
in  the  hand-play,  and  John  Pargetter  hurt 
very  sore  on  the  shoulder  with  a  glaive  ;  and 
five  more  men  of  the  Fellowship  slain  in  the 
hand-play,  and  some  few  hurt,  but  not  sorely. 
And  as  to  those  slain,  if  God  give  their  souls 
rest  it  is  well ;  for  little  rest  they  had  on 
the  earth  belike ;  but  for  me,  I  desire  rest 
no  more. ' 

I  looked  at  him  and  our  eyes  met  with  no 
little  love;  and  I  wondered  to  see  how  wrath 
and  grief  within  him  were  contending  with 
the  kindness  of  the  man,  and  how  clear  the 
tokens  of  it  were  in  his  face. 

'  Come  now,  old  lad, '  said  he,  '  for  I  deem 
that  John  Ball  and  Jack  Straw  have  a  word 
to  say  to  us  at  the  cross  yet,  since  these  men 
broke  off  the  telling  of  the  tale;  there  shall 
we  know  what  we  are  to  take  in  hand 
to-morrow.  And  afterwards  thou  shalt  eat 
and  drink  in  my  house  this  once,  if  never 
again. ' 

So  we  went  through  the  orchard  closes 
again  ;  and  others  were  about  and  anigh  us, 
all  turned  toward  the  cross  as  we  went  over 
the  dewy  grass,  whereon  the  moon  was 
just  beginning  to  throw  shadows. 


69 


VII 

MORE   WORDS   AT   THE   CROSS 

I  GOT  into  my  old  place  again  on  the  steps 
of  the  cross,  Will  Green  beside  me, 
and  above  me  John  Ball  and  Jack  Straw 
again.  The  moon  was  half-way  up  the 
heavens  now,  and  the  short  summer  night 
had  begun,  calm  and  fragrant,  with  just  so 
much  noise  outside  our  quiet  circle  as  made 
one  feel  the  world  alive  and  happy. 

We  waited  silently  until  we  had  heard  John 
Ball  and  the  story  of  what  was  to  do ;  and 
presently  he  began  to  speak : 

»  Good  people,  it  is  begun,  but  not  ended. 
Which  of  you  is  hardy  enough  to  wend  the 
road  to  London  to-morrow  .' ' 

'  All !  All  I  '  they  shouted. 

'  Yea, '  said  he,  '  even  so  I  deemed  of  you. 
Yet  forsooth  hearken !  London  is  a  great 
and  grievous  city ;  and  mayhappen  when  ye 
come  thither  it  shall  seem  to  you  over-great 
to  deal  with,  when  ye  remember  the  little 
townships  and  the  cots  ye  came  from. 

'  Moreover,  when  ye  dwell  here  in  Kent 
ye  think  forsooth  of  your  brethren  in  Essex 
or  Suffolk,  and  there  belike  an  end.  But 
from  London  ye  may  have  an  inkling  of  all 
the  world,  and  over-burdensome  maybe  shall 
that  seem  to  you,  a  few  and  a  feeble  people. 


70 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

'  Nevertheless  I  say  to  you,  remember  the 
Fellowship,  in  the  hope  of  which  ye  have 
this  day  conquered ;  and  when  ye  come  to 
London  be  wise  and  wary ;  and  that  is  as 
much  as  to  say,  be  bold  and  hardy;  for  in 
these  days  are  ye  building  a  house  which 
shall  not  be  overthrown,  and  the  world  shall 
not  be  too  great  or  too  little  to  hold  it :  for 
indeed  it  shall  be  the  world  itself,  set  free 
from  evil-doers  for  friends  to  dwell  in.' 

He  ceased  awhile,  but  they  hearkened  still, 
as  if  something  more  was  coming.  Then  he 
said: 

'To-morrow  we  shall  take  the  road  for 
Rochester ;  and  most  like  it  were  well  to  see 
what  Sir  John  Newton  in  the  castle  may  say 
to  us :  for  the  man  is  no  ill  man,  and  hath  a 
tongue  well-shapen  for  words ;  and  it  were 
well  that  we  had  him  out  of  the  castle  and 
away  with  us,  and  that  we  put  a  word  in  his 
mouth  to  say  to  the  King.  And  wot  ye  well, 
good  fellows,  that  by  then  we  come  to 
Rochester  we  shall  be  a  goodly  company, 
and  ere  we  come  to  Blackheath  a  very  great 
company;  and  at  London  Bridge  who  shall 
stay  our  host .' 

'  Therefore  there  is  nought  that  can  undo 
us  except  our  own  selves  and  our  hearkening 
to  soft  words  from  those  who  would  slay  us. 
They  shall  bid  us  go  home  and  abide  peace- 


71 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

fully  with  our  wives  and  children  while  they, 
the  lords  and  councillors  and  lawyers,  imagine 
counsel  and  remedy  for  us;  and  even  so 
shall  our  own  folly  bid  us  ;  and  if  we  hearken 
thereto  we  are  undone  indeed ;  for  they  shall 
fall  upon  our  peace  with  war,  and  our  wives 
and  children  they  shall  take  from  us,  and 
some  of  us  they  shall  hang,  and  some  they 
shall  scourge,  and  the  others  shall  be  their 
yoke-beasts  —  yea,  and  worse,  for  they  shall 
lack  meat  more. 

•  To  fools  hearken  not,  whether  they  be 
yourselves  or  your  foemen,  for  either  shall 
lead  you  astray. 

'  With  the  lords  parley  not,  for  ye  know 
already  what  they  would  say  to  you,  and  that 
is,  "  Churl,  let  me  bridle  thee  and  saddle 
thee,  and  eat  thy  livelihood  that  thou  winnest, 
and  call  thee  hard  names  because  I  eat  thee 
up  ;  and  for  thee,  speak  not  and  do  not,  save 
as  I  bid  thee." 

'  All  that  is  the  end  of  their  parleying. 

'  Therefore  be  ye  bold,  and  again  bold,  and 
thrice  bold !  Grip  the  bow,  handle  the  staff» 
draw  the  sword,  and  set  on  in  the  name  of 
the  Fellowship  1 ' 

He  ended  amid  loud  shouts ;  but  straight- 
way answering  shouts  were  heard,  and  a 
great  noise  of  the  winding  of  horns,  and  I 
misdoubted  a  new  onslaught ;  and  some  of 


72 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN   BALL 

those  in  the  throng  began  to  string  their 
bows  and  handle  their  bills ;  but  Will  Green 
pulled  me  by  the  sleeve  and  said, 

'  Friends  are  these  by  the  winding  of  their 
horns ;  thou  art  quit  for  this  night,  old  lad.' 
And  then  Jack  Straw  cried  out  from  the  cross : 
'  Fair  and  softly,  my  masters !  These  be 
men  of  our  Fellowship,  and  are  for  your 
guests  this  night;  they  are  from  the  bents 
this  side  of  Medway,  and  are  with  us  here 
because  of  the  pilgrimage  road,  and  that  is 
the  best  in  these  parts,  and  so  the  shortest 
to  Rochester.  And  doubt  ye  nothing  of  our 
being  taken  unawares  this  night ;  for  I  have 
bidden  and  sent  out  watchers  of  the  ways, 
and  neither  a  man's  son  nor  a  mare's  son 
may  come  in  on  us  without  espial.  Now 
make  we  our  friends  welcome.  Forsooth,  I 
looked  for  them  an  hour  later ;  and  had  they 
come  an  hour  earlier  yet,  some  heads  would 
now  lie  on  the  cold  grass  which  shall  lie  on 
the  feather  bed  to-night.  But  let  be,  since 
all  is  well ! 

'  Now  get  we  home  to  our  houses,  and  eat 
and  drink  and  slumber  this  night,  if  never 
once  again,  amid  the  multitude  of  friends  and 
fellows  ;  and  yet  soberly  and  without  riot, 
since  so  much  work  is  to  hand.  Moreover 
the  priest  saith,  bear  ye  the  dead  men,  both 
friends   and   foes,  into   the  chancel   of  the 


73 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

church,  and  there  this  night  he  will  wake 
them :  but  after  to-morrow  let  the  dead  abide 
to  bury  their  dead ! ' 

Therewith  he  leapt  down  from  the  cross, 
and  Will  and  I  bestirred  ourselves  and  min- 
gled with  the  new-comers.  They  were  some 
three  hundred  strong,  clad  and  armed  in  all 
ways  like  the  people  of  our  township,  except 
some  half-dozen  whose  armour  shone  cold 
like  ice  under  the  moonbeams.  Will  Green 
soon  had  a  dozen  of  them  by  the  sleeve  to 
come  home  with  him  to  board  and  bed,  and 
then  1  lost  him  for  some  minutes,  and  turn- 
ing about  saw  John  Ball  standing  behind  me, 
looking  pensively  on  all  the  stir  and  merry 
humours  of  the  joyous  uplanders. 

'  Brother  from  Essex, '  said  he,  '  shall  I  see 
thee  again  to-night?  I  were  fain  of  speech 
with  thee ;  for  thou  seemest  like  one  that 
has  seen  more  than  most.' 

'  Yea, '  said  I,  '  if  ye  come  to  Will  Green's 
house,  for  thither  am  I  bidden.' 

'  Thither  shall  I  come, '  said  he,  smiling 
kindly,  '  or  no  man  I  know  in  field.  Lo  you. 
Will  Green  looking  for  something,  and  that 
is  me.  But  in  his  house  will  be  song  and  the 
talk  of  many  friends;  and  forsooth  I  have 
words  in  me  that  crave  to  come  out  in  a 
quiet  place  where  they  may  have  each  one 
his  own  answer.     If  thou  art  not  afraid  of 


74 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

dead  men  who  were  alive  and  wicked  this 
morning,  come  thou  to  the  church  when 
supper  is  done,  and  there  we  may  talk  all  we 
will.' 

Will  Green  was  standing  beside  us  before 
he  had  done,  with  his  hand  laid  on  the 
priest's  shoulder,  waiting  till  he  had  spoken 
out ;  and  as  I  nodded  Yea  to  John  Ball  he 
said : 

'  Now,  master  priest,  thou  hast  spoken 
enough  this  two  or  three  hours,  and  this  my 
new  brother  must  tell  and  talk  in  my  house  ; 
and  there  my  maid  will  hear  his  wisdom 
which  lay  still  under  the  hedge  e'en  now 
when  the  bolts  were  abroad.  So  come  ye, 
and  ye  good  fellows,  come ! ' 

So  we  turned  away  together  into  the  little 
street.  But  while  John  Ball  had  been  speak- 
ing to  me  I  felt  strangely,  as  though  I  had 
more  things  to  say  than  the  words  I  knew 
could  make  clear :  as  if  I  wanted  to  get  from 
other  people  a  new  set  of  words.  Moreover, 
as  we  passed  up  the  street  again  I  was  once 
again  smitten  with  the  great  beauty  of  the 
scene ;  the  houses,  the  church  with  its  new 
chancel  and  tower,  snow-white  in  the  moon- 
beams now ;  the  dresses  and  arms  of  the 
people,  men  and  women  ( for  the  latter  were 
now  mixed  up  with  the  men);  their  grave 
sonorous     language,    and    the    quaint    and 


75 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

measured  forms  of  speech,  were  again  become 
a  wonder  to  me  and  affected  me  almost  to 
tears. 


76 


VIII 

SUPPER  AT   WILL  GREEN'S 

I  WALKED  along  with  the  others  musing 
as  if  I  did  not  belong  to  them,  till  we 
came  to  Will  Green's  house.  He  was  one  of 
the  wealthier  of  the  yoemen,  and  his  house 
was  one  of  those  I  told  you  of,  the  lower 
story  of  which  was  built  of  stone.  It  had 
not  been  built  long,  and  was  very  trim  and 
neat.  The  fit  of  wonder  had  worn  off  me 
again  by  then  I  reached  it,  or  perhaps  I 
should  give  you  a  closer  description  of  it,  for 
it  was  a  handsome  yoeman's  dwelling  of  that 
day,  which  is  as  much  as  saying  it  was  very 
beautiful.  The  house  on  the  other  side  of 
it,  the  last  house  in  the  village,  was  old  or 
even  ancient ;  all  built  of  stone,  and  except 
for  a  newer  piece  built  on  to  it  —  a  hall,  it 
seemed  —  had  round  arches,  some  of  them 
handsomely  carved.  I  knew  that  this  was 
the  parson's  house  ;  but  he  was  another  sort 
of  priest  than  John  Ball,  and  what  for  fear, 
what  for  hatred,  had  gone  back  to  his 
monastery  with  the  two  other  chantrey 
priests  who  dwelt  in  that  house  :  so  that  the 
men  of  the  township,  and  more  especially 
the  women,  were  thinking  gladly  how  John 
Ball  should  say  mass  in  their  new  chancel  on 
the  morrow. 


77 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN   BALL 

Will  Green's  daughter  was  waiting  for  him 
at  the  door  and  gave  him  a  close  and  eager 
hug,  and  had  a  kiss  to  spare  for  each  of  us 
withal :  a  strong  girl  she  was,  as  I  have  said, 
and  sweet  and  wholesome  also.  She  made 
merry  with  her  father ;  yet  it  was  easy  to  see 
that  her  heart  was  in  her  mouth  all  along. 
There  was  a  younger  girl  some  twelve  sum- 
mers old,  and  a  lad  of  ten,  who  were  easily 
to  be  known  for  his  children;  an  old  woman 
also,  who  had  her  livelihood  there,  and 
helped  the  household ;  and  moreover  three 
long  young  men,  who  came  into  the  house 
after  we  had  sat  down,  to  whom  Will  nodded 
kindly.  They  were  brisk  lads  and  smart, 
but  had  been  afield  after  the  beasts  that 
evening,  and  had  not  seen  the  fray. 

The  room  we  came  into  was  indeed  the 
house,  for  there  was  nothing  but  it  on 
the  ground  floor,  but  a  stair  in  the  corner 
went  up  to  the  chamber  or  loft  above.  It 
was  much  like  the  room  at  the  Rose,  but 
bigger ;  the  cupboard  better  wrought,  and 
with  more  vessels  on  it,  and  handsomer. 
Also  the  walls,  instead  of  being  panelled, 
were  hung  with  a  coarse  loosely-woven  stuff 
of  green  worsted  with  birds  and  trees  woven 
into  it.  There  were  flowers  in  plenty  stuck 
about  the  room,  mostly  of  the  yellow  blossom- 
ing flag  or  flowerde  luce,  of  which  I  had  seen 


78 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN   BALL 

plenty  in  all  the  ditches,  but  in  the  window 
near  the  door  was  a  pot  full  of  those  same 
white  poppies  I  had  seen  when  I  first  woke 
up ;  and  the  table  was  all  set  forth  with 
meat  and  drink,  a  big  salt-cellar  of  pewter  in 
the  middle,  covered  with  a  white  cloth. 

We  sat  down,  the  priest  blessed  the  meat 
in  the  name  of  the  Trinity,  and  we  crossed 
ourselves  and  fell  to.  The  victual  was 
plentiful  of  broth  and  flesh-meat,  and  bread 
and  cherries,  so  we  ate  and  drank,  and  talked 
lightly  together  when  we  were  full. 

Yet  was  not  the  feast  so  gay  as  might 
have  been.  Will  Green  had  me  to  sit  next 
to  him,  and  on  the  other  side  sat  John  Ball ; 
but  the  priest  had  grown  somewhat  distraught 
and  sat  as  one  thinking  of  somewhat  that 
was  like  to  escape  his  thought.  Will  Green 
looked  at  his  daughter  from  time  to  time, 
and  whiles  his  eyes  glanced  round  the  fair 
chamber  as  one  who  loved  it,  and  his  kind  face 
grew  sad,  yet  never  sullen.  When  the  herds- 
men came  into  the  hall  they  fell  straightway 
to  asking  questions  concerning  those  of  the 
Fellowship  who  had  been  slain  in  the  fray, 
and  of  their  wives  and  children  ;  so  that  for 
a  while  thereafter  no  man  cared  to  jest,  for 
they  were  a  neighbourly  and  kind  folk,  and 
were  sorry  both  for  the  dead,  and  also  for  the 
living  that  should  suffer  from  that  day's  work. 


79 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

So  then  we  sat  silent  awhile.  The  unseen 
moon  was  bright  over  the  roof  of  the  house, 
so  that  outside  all  was  gleaming  bright  save 
the  black  shadows,  though  the  moon  came 
not  into  the  room,  and  the  white  wall  of  the 
tower  was  the  whitest  and  the  brightest  thing 
we  could  see. 

Wide  open  were  the  windows,  and  the 
scents  of  the  fragrant  night  floated  in  upon 
us,  and  the  sounds  of  the  men  at  their  meat 
or  making  merry  about  the  township ;  and 
whiles  jwe  heard  the  gibber  of  an  owl  from 
the  trees  westward  of  the  church,  and  the 
sharp  cry  of  a  blackbird  made  fearful  by 
the  prowling  stoat,  or  the  far-off  lowing  of 
a  cow  from  the  upland  pastures ;  or  the 
hoofs  of  a  horse  trotting  on  the  pilgrimage 
road  (and  one  of  our  watchers  would  that 
be). 

Thus  we  sat  awhile,  and  once  again  came 
that  feeling  over  me  of  wonder  and  pleasure 
at  the  strange  and  beautiful  sights,  mingled 
with  the  sights  and  sounds  and  scents  beauti- 
ful indeed,  yet  not  strange,  but  rather  long 
familiar  to  me. 

But  now  Will  Green  started  in  his  seat 
where  he  sat  with  his  daughter  hanging  over 
his  chair,  her  hand  amidst  his  thick  black 
curls,  and  she  weeping  softly  I  thought ;  and 
his  rough  strong  voice  broke  the  silence. 


80 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

'  Why,  lads  and  neighbours,  what  ails  us  ? 
If  the  knights  who  fled  from  us  this  eve 
were  to  creep  back  hither  and  look  in  at  the 
window,  they  would  deem  that  they  had  slain 
us  after  all,  and  that  we  were  but  the  ghosts 
of  the  men  who  fought  them.  Yet,  forsooth, 
fair  it  is  at  whiles  to  sit  with  friends  and  let 
the  summer  night  speak  for  us  and  tell  us 
its  tales.  But  now,  sweetling,  fetch  the 
mazer  and  the  wine.' 

•  Forsooth,'  said  John  Ball,  '  if  ye  laugh 
not  over-much  now,  ye  shall  laugh  the  more 
on  the  morrow  of  to-morrow,  as  ye  draw 
nearer  to  the  play  of  point  and  edge.' 

'  That  is  sooth,'  said  one  of  the  upland 
guests.  •  So  it  was  seen  in  France  when  we 
fought  there;  and  the  eve  of  fight  was  sober 
and  the  mom  was  merry.' 

•  Yea,'  said  another,  '  but  there,  forsooth,  it 
was  for  nothing  ye  fought;  and  to-morrow 
it  shall  be  for  a  fair  reward.' 

•  It  was  for  life  we  fought,'  said  the  first, 
'  Yea,'  said  the  second, '  for  life ;  and  leave 

to  go  home  and  find  the  lawyers  at  their  fell 
game.  Ho,  Will  Green,  call  a  health  over 
the  cup ! ' 

For  now  Will  Green  had  a  bowl  of  wine  in 
his  hand.  He  stood  up  and  said  :  '  Here, 
now,  I  call  a  health  to  the  wrights  of  Kent 
who  be  turning  our  plough-shares  into  swords 


8i 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

and  our  pruning-hooks  into  spears !  Drink 
around,  my  masters  I ' 

Then  he  drank,  and  his  daughter  filled  the 
bowl  brimming  again  and  he  passed  it  to  me. 
As  I  took  it  I  saw  that  it  was  of  light  polished 
wood  curiously  speckled,  with  a  band  of 
silver  round  it,  on  which  was  cut  the  legend 
'  In  the  name  of  the  Trinity  fill  the  cup  and 
drink  to  me.'  And  before  I  drank,  it  came 
upon  me  to  say,  '  To-morrow,  and  the  fair 
days  afterwards ! ' 

Then  I  drank  a  great  draught  of  the  strong 
red  wine,  and  passed  it  on ;  and  every  man 
said  something  over  it,  as  'The  road  to 
London  Bridge !  '  '  Hob  Carter  and  his 
mate ! '  and  so  on,  till  last  of  all  John  Ball 
drank,  saying : 

'  Ten  years  hence,  and  the  freedom  of  the 
Fellowship !  '  Then  he  said  to  Will  Green  : 
'  Now,  Will,  must  I  needs  depart  to  go  and 
wake  the  dead,  both  friend  and  foe  in  the 
church  yonder;  and  whoso  of  you  will  be 
shriven  let  him  come  to  me  thither  in  the 
morn,  nor  spare  for  as  little  after  sunrise  as 
it  may  be.  And  this  our  friend  and  brother 
from  over  the  water  of  Thames,  he  hath  will 
to  talk  with  me  and  I  with  him  ;  so  now 
will  I  take  him  by  the  hand :  and  so  God 
keep  you,  fellows ! ' 

I  rose  to  meet  him  as  he  came  round  the 


82 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

head  of  the  table,  and  took  his  hand.  Will 
Green  turned  round  to  me  and  said  : 

'  Thou  wilt  come  back  again  timely,  old 
lad;  for  betimes  on  the  morrow  must  we 
rise  if  we  shall  dine  at  Rochester.' 

I  stammered  as  I  yea-said  him;  for  John 
Ball  was  looking  strangely  at  me  with  a  half- 
smile,  and  my  heart  beat  anxiously  and 
fearfully :  but  we  went  quietly  to  the  door 
and  so  out  into  the  bright  moonlight. 

I  lingered  a  little  when  we  had  passed  the 
threshold,  and  looked  back  at  the  yellow- 
lighted  window  and  the  shapes  of  the  men 
that  I  saw  therein  with  a  grief  and  longing 
that  I  could  not  give  myself  a  reason  for, 
since  I  was  to  come  back  so  soon.  John 
Ball  did  not  press  me  to  move  forward,  but 
held  up  his  hand  as  if  to  bid  me  hearken. 
The  folk  and  guests  there  had  already  shaken 
themselves  down  since  our  departure,  and 
were  gotten  to  be  reasonably  merry  it 
seemed ;  for  one  of  the  guests,  he  who  had 
spoken  of  France  before,  had  fallen  to  sing- 
ing a  ballad  of  the  war  to  a  wild  and  mel- 
ancholy tune.  I  remember  the  first  rhymes 
of  it,  which  I  heard  as  I  turned  away  my 
head  and  we  moved  on  toward  the  church  : 

'  On  a  fair  field  of  France 
We  fought  on  a  morning 


83 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

So  lovely  as  it  lieth 
Along  by  the  water. 
There  was  many  a  lord  there 
Mowed  men  in  the  medley, 
'Midst  the  banners  of  the  barons 
And  bold  men  of  the  knighthood, 
And  sf  ear  men  and  sergeants 
And  shooters  of  the  shaft.' 


84 


IX 

BETWIXT   THE   LIVING   AND  THE   DEAD 

WE  entered  the  church  through  the 
south  porch  under  a  round-arched 
door  carved  very  richly,  and  with  a  sculpture 
over  the  doorway  and  under  the  arch,  which, 
as  far  as  I  could  see  by  the  moonlight, 
figured  St.  Michael  and  the  Dragon.  As  I 
came  into  the  rich  gloom  of  the  nave 
I  noticed  for  the  first  time  that  I  had  one 
of  those  white  poppies  in  my  hand ;  I  must 
have  taken  it  out  of  the  pot  by  the  window 
as  I  passed  out  of  Will  Green's  house. 

The  nave  was  not  very  large,  but  it  looked 
spacious  too  ;  it  was  somewhat  old,  but  well- 
built  and  handsome ;  the  roof  of  curved 
wooden  rafters  with  great  tie-beams  going 
from  wall  to  wall.  There  was  no  light  in  it 
but  that  of  the  moon  streaming  through  the 
windows,  which  were  by  no  means  large,  and 
were  glazed  with  white  fretwork,  with  here 
and  there  a  little  figure  in  very  deep  rich 
colours.  Two  larger  windows  near  the  east 
end  of  each  aisle  had  just  been  made,  so  that 
the  church  grew  lighter  toward  the  east, 
and  I  could  see  all  the  work  on  the  great 
screen  between  the  nave  and  chancel  which 
glittered  bright  in  new  paint  and  gilding:  a 
candle  glimmered  in  the  loft  above  it,  before 


85 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

the  huge  rood  that  filled  up  the  whole  space 
between  the  loft  and  the  chancel-arch. 
There  was  an  altar  at  the  east  end  of  each 
aisle,  the  one  on  the  south  side  standing 
against  the  outside  wall,  the  one  on  the 
north  against  a  traceried  gaily-painted  screen, 
for  that  aisle  ran  on  along  the  chancel.  There 
were  a  few  oak  benches  near  this  second 
altar,  seemingly  just  made,  and  well  carved 
and  moulded ;  otherwise  the  floor  of  the 
nave,  which  was  paved  with  a  quaint  pave- 
ment of  glazed  tiles  like  the  crocks  I  had 
seen  outside  as  to  ware,  was  quite  clear,  and 
the  shafts  of  the  arches  rose  out  of  it  white 
and  beautiful  under  the  moon  as  though  out 
of  a  sea,  dark  but  with  gleams  struck  over  it. 

The  priest  let  me  linger  and  look  round, 
when  he  had  crossed  himself  and  given  me 
the  holy  water;  and  then  I  saw  that  the  walls 
were  figured  all  over  with  stories,  a  huge  St. 
Christopher  with  his  black  beard  looking 
like  Will  Green,  being  close  to  the  porch  by 
which  we  entered,  and  above  the  chancel 
arch  the  Doom  of  the  Last  Day,  in  which 
the  painter  had  not  spared  either  kings  or 
bishops,  and  in  which  a  lawyer  with  his  blue 
coif  was  one  of  the  chief  figures  in  the  group 
which  the  Devil  was  hauling  off  to  hell. 

'  Yea,'  said  John  Ball, '  'tis  a  goodly  church 
and  fair  as  you  may  see  'twixt  Canterbury  and 


86 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

London  as  for  its  kind;  and  yet  do  I  mis- 
doubt me  where  those  who  are  dead  are 
housed,  and  where  those  shall  house  them 
after  they  are  dead,  who  built  this  house  for 
God  to  dwell  in.  God  grant  they  be  cleansed 
at  last ;  forsooth  one  of  them  who  is  now 
alive  is  a  foul  swine  and  a  cruel  wolf.  Art 
thou  all  so  sure,  scholar,  that  all  such  have 
souls  ?  and  if  it  be  so,  was  it  well  done  of 
God  to  make  them  ?  I  speak  to  thee  thus, 
for  I  think  thou  art  no  delator ;  and  if  thou 
be,  why  should  I  heed  it,  since  I  think  not  to 
come  back  from  this  journey.' 

I  looked  at  him  and,  as  it  were,  had  some 
ado  to  answer  him ;  but  I  said  at  last, 
'  Friend,  I  never  saw  a  soul,  save  in  the 
body;  I  cannot  tell.' 

He  crossed  himself  and  said,  '  Yet  do  I 
intend  that  ere  many  days  are  gone  by  my 
soul  shall  be  in  bliss  among  the  fellowship 
of  the  saints,  and  merry  shall  it  be,  even 
before  my  body  rises  from  the  dead ;  for 
wbely  I  have  wrought  in  the  world,  and  I  wot 
well  of  friends  that  are  long  ago  gone  from 
the  world,  as  St.  Martin,  and  St.  Francis,  and 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  who  shall  speak 
well  of  me  to  the  heavenly  Fellowship,  and  I 
shall  in  no  wise  lose  my  reward.' 

I  looked  shyly  at  him  as  he  spoke;  his 
face  looked  sweet  and  calm  and  happy,  and 


87 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

I  would  have  said  no  word  to  grieve  him ; 
and  yet  belike  my  eyes  looked  wonder  on 
him :  he  seemed  to  note  it  and  his  face  grew 
puzzled.  '  How  deemest  thou  of  these  things  ? ' 
said  he  :  '  why  do  men  die  else,  if  it  be  other- 
wise than  this  ? ' 

I  smiled  :  '  Why  then  do  they  live  ? '  said  I. 

Even  in  the  white  moonlight  I  saw  his  face 
flush,  and  he  cried  out  in  a  great  voice,  '  To 
do  great  deeds  or  to  repent  them  that  they 
ever  were  born.' 

•  Yea,'  said  I,  '  they  live  to  live  because  the 
world  liveth.'  He  stretched  out  his  hand  to 
me  and  grasped  mine,  but  said  no  more ;  and 
went  on  till  we  came  to  the  door  in  the  rood- 
screen  ;  then  he  turned  to  me  with  his  hand 
on  the  ring-latch,  and  said,  '  Hast  thou  seen 
many  dead  men  ? ' 

'  Nay,  but  few,'  said  I. 

'And  I  a  many,'  said  he;  'but  come  now 
and  look  on  these,  our  friends  first  and  then 
our  foes,  so  that  ye  may  not  look  to  see  them 
while  we  sit  and  talk  of  the  days  that  are  to 
be  on  the  earth  before  the  Day  of  Doom 
cometh.' 

So  he  opened  the  door,  and  we  went  into 
the  chancel ;  a  light  burned  on  the  high  altar 
before  the  host,  and  looked  red  and  strange 
in  the  moonlight  that  came  through  the  wide 
traceried  windows  unstained  by  the  pictures 


88 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

and  beflowerings  of  the  glazing ;  there  were 
new  stalls  for  the  priests  and  vicars  where  we 
entered,  carved  more  abundantly  and  beauti- 
fully than  any  of  the  woodwork  I  had  yet 
seen,  and  everywhere  was  rich  and  fair  colour 
and  delicate  and  dainty  form.  Our  dead  lay 
just  before  the  high  altar  on  low  biers,  their 
faces  all  covered  with  linen  cloths,  for  some 
of  them  had  been  sore  smitten  and  hacked  in 
the  fray.  We  went  up  to  them  and  John 
Ball  took  the  cloth  from  the  face  of  one ;  he 
had  been  shot  to  the  heart  with  a  shaft  and 
his  face  was  calm  and  smooth.  He  had  been 
a  young  man  fair  and  comely,  with  hair  flaxen 
almost  to  whiteness;  he  lay  there  in  his 
clothes  as  he  had  fallen,  the  hands  crossed 
over  his  breast  and  holding  a  rush  cross.  His 
bow  lay  on  one  side  of  him,  his  quiver  of 
shafts  and  his  sword  on  the  other. 

John  Ball  spake  to  me  while  he  held  the 
corner  of  the  sheet :  '  What  sayest  thou, 
scholar.'  feelest  thou  sorrow  of  heart  when 
thou  lookest  on  this,  either  for  the  man  him- 
self, or  for  thyself  and  the  time  when  thou 
shalt  be  as  he  is  ? ' 

I  said,  '  Nay,  I  feel  no  sorrow  for  this ;  for 
the  man  is  not  here :  this  is  an  empty  house, 
and  the  master  has  gone  from  it.  Forsooth, 
this  to  me  is  but  as  a  waxen  image  of  a  man  ; 
nay,  not  even  that,  for  if  it  were  an  image,  it 


89 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

would  be  an  image  of  the  man  as  he  was 
when  he  was  alive.  But  here  is  no  life  nor 
semblance  of  life,  and  I  am  not  moved  by  it ; 
nay,  I  am  more  moved  by  the  man's  clothes 
and  war-gear  —  there  is  more  life  in  them 
than  in  him.' 

•  Thou  sayest  sooth,'  said  he ;  '  but  sorrow- 
est  thou  not  for  thine  own  death  when  thou 
lookest  on  him  ? ' 

I  said,  'And  how  can  I  sorrow  for  that 
which  I  cannot  so  much  as  think  of .'  Bethink 
thee  that  while  I  am  alive  I  cannot  think 
that  I  shall  die,  or  believe  in  death  at  all, 
although  I  know  well  that  I  shall  die  —  I 
can  but  think  of  myself  as  living  in  some 
new  way.' 

Again  he  looked  on  me  as  If  puzzled ;  then 
his  face  cleared  as  he  said,  '  Yea,  forsooth, 
and  that  is  what  the  Church  meaneth  by 
death,  and  even  that  I  look  for  ;  and  that 
hereafter  I  shall  see  all  the  deeds  that  I 
have  done  in  the  body,  and  what  they  really 
were,  and  what  shall  come  of  them ;  and 
ever  shall  I  be  a  member  of  the  Church,  and 
that  is  the  Fellowship ;  then,  even  as  now.' 

I  sighed  as  he  spoke ;  then  I  said,  '  Yea, 
somewhat  in  this  fashion  have  most  of  men 
thought,  since  no  man  that  is  can  conceive  of 
not  being;  and  I  mind  me  that  in  those 
stories  of  the  old  Danes,  their  common  word 


90 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

for  a  man  dying  is  to  say,  "  He  changed  his 
life."  • 

'  And  so  deemest  thou  ? ' 

I  shook  my  head  and  said  nothing. 

'  What  hast  thou  to  say  hereon  ? '  said  he, 
'for  there  seemeth  something  betwixt  us 
twain  as  it  were  a  wall  that  parteth  us.' 

'  This,'  said  I,  '  that  though  I  die  and  end, 
yet  mankind  yet  liveth,  therefore  I  end  not, 
since  I  am  a  man ;  and  even  so  thou  deem- 
est, good  friend ;  or  at  the  least  even  so  thou 
doest,  since  now  thou  art  ready  to  die  in 
grief  and  torment  rather  than  be  unfaithful 
to  the  Fellowship,  yea  rather  than  fail  to 
work  thine  utmost  for  it ;  whereas,  as  thou 
thyself  saidst  at  the  cross,  with  a  few  words 
spoken  and  a  little  huddling-up  of  the  truth, 
with  a  few  pennies  paid,  and  a  few  masses 
sung,  thou  mightest  have  had  a  good  place 
on  this  earth  and  in  that  heaven.  And  as 
thou  doest,  so  now  doth  many  a  poor  man 
unnamed  and  unknown,  and  shall  do  while 
the  world  lasteth  :  and  they  that  do  less  than 
this,  fail  because  of  fear,  and  are  ashamed  of 
their  cowardice,  and  make  many  tales  to 
themselves  to  deceive  themselves,  lest  they 
should  grow  too  much  ashamed  to  live.  And 
trust  me  if  this  were  not  so,  the  world  would 
not  live,  but  would  die,  smothered  by  its  own 
stink.     Is  the  wall  betwixt  us  gone,  friend  ? ' 


9' 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

He  smiled  as  he  looked  at  me,  kindly,  but 
sadly  and  shamefast,  and  shook  his  head. 

Then  in  a  while  he  said,  '  Now  ye  have  seen 
the  images  of  those  who  were  our  friends, 
come  and  see  the  images  of  those  who  were 
once  our  foes.' 

So  he  led  the  way  through  the  side  screen 
into  the  chancel  aisle,  and  there  on  the  pave- 
ment lay  the  bodies  of  the  foemen,  their 
weapons  taken  from  them  and  they  stripped 
of  their  armour,  but  not  otherwise  of  their 
clothes,  and  their  faces  mostly,  but  not  all, 
covered.  At  the  east  end  of  the  aisle  was 
another  altar,  covered  with  a  rich  cloth  beau- 
tifully figured,  and  on  the  wall  over  it  was  a 
deal  of  tabernacle  work,  in  the  midmost 
niche  of  it  an  image  painted  and  gilt  of  a  gay 
knight  on  horseback,  cutting  his  own  cloak 
in  two  with  his  sword  to  give  a  cantle  of  it  to 
a  half-naked  beggar. 

'  Knowest  thou  any  of  these  men  ? '  said  I. 

He  said,  '  Some  I  should  know,  could  I 
see  their  faces ;  but  let  them  be.' 

'  Were  they  evil  men  ? '  said  I. 

'  Yea,'  he  said,  '  some  two  or  three.  But  I 
will  not  tell  thee  of  them;  let  St.  Martin, 
whose  house  this  is,  tell  their  story  if  he 
will.  As  for  the  rest  they  were  hapless  fools, 
or  else  men  who  must  earn  their  bread  some- 
how, and  were  driven  to  this  bad   way  of 


92 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

earning  it ;  God  rest  their  souls  I  I  will  be 
no  tale-bearer,  not  even  to  God.' 

So  we  stood  musing  a  little  while,  I  gazing 
not  on  the  dead  men,  but  on  the  strange  pic- 
tures on  the  wall,  which  were  richer  and 
deeper  coloured  than  those  in  the  nave  ;  till 
at  last  John  Ball  turned  to  me  and  laid  his 
hand  on  my  shoulder.  I  started  and  said, 
•Yea,  brother;  now  must  I  get  me  back  to 
Will  Green's  house,  as  I  promised  to  do  so 
timely.  ' 

'  Not  yet,  brother,'  said  he ;  '  I  have  still 
much  to  say  to  thee,  and  the  night  is  yet 
young.  Go  we  and  sit  in  the  stalls  of  the 
vicars,  and  let  us  ask  and  answer  on  matters 
concerning  the  fashion  of  this  world  of  men- 
folk, and  of  this  land  wherein  we  dwell ;  for 
once  more  I  deem  of  thee  that  thou  hast 
seen  things  which  I  have  not  seen,  and 
could  not  have  seen.'  With  that  word  he  led 
me  back  into  the  chancel,  and  we  sat  down 
side  by  side  in  the  stalls  at  the  west  end  of 
it,  facing  the  high  altar  and  the  great  east 
window.  By  this  time  the  chancel  was  get- 
ting dimmer  as  the  moon  wound  round  the 
heavens ;  but  yet  was  there  a  twilight  of  the 
moon,  so  that  I  could  still  see  the  things 
about  me  for  all  the  brightness  of  the  window 
that  faced  us  ;  and  this  moon  twilight  would 
last,  I  knew,  until  the  short  summer  night 


93 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

should  wane,  and  the  twilight  of  the  dawn 
begin  to  show  us  the  colours  of  all  things 
about  us. 

.  So  we  sat,  and  I  gathered  my  thoughts  to 
hear  what  he  would  say,  and  I  myself 
was  trying  to  think  what  I  should  ask  of 
him;  for  I  thought  of  him  as  he  of  me,  that 
he  had  seen  things  which  I  could  not  have 
seen. 


94 


THOSE  TWO   TALK    OF   THE    DAYS   TO    COME 

'  jjROTHER,' said  John  Ball,  'how  deem- 

*— '  est  thou  of  our  adventure?  I  do 
not  ask  thee  if  thou  thinkest  we  are  right  to 
play  the  play  like  men,  but  whether  playing 
like  men  we  shall  fail  like  men. ' 

'  Why  dost  thou  ask  me  ? '  said  I ;  '  how 
much  further  than  beyond  this  church  can  I 
see  ? ' 

'Far  further,'  quoth  he,  'for  I  wot  that 
thou  are  a  scholar  and  hast  read  books ;  and 
withal,  in  some  way  that  I  cannot  name, 
thou  knowest  more  than  we;  as  though  with 
thee  the  world  had  lived  longer  than  with  us. 
Hide  not,  therefore,  what  thou  hast  in  thine 
heart,  for  I  think  after  this  night  I  shall  see 
thee  no  more,  until  we  meet  in  the  heavenly 
Fellowship.' 

*  Friend,'  I  said,  'ask  me  what  thou  wilt ; 
or  rather  ask  thou  the  years  to  come  to  tell 
thee  some  little  of  their  tale ;  and  yet 
methinks  thou  thyself  mayest  have  some 
deeming  thereof.' 

lie  raised  himself  on  the  elbow  of  the  stall 
and  looked  me  full  in  the  face,  and  said  to 
me :  '  Is  it  so  after  all  that  thou  art  no  man 
in  the  flesh,  but  art  sent  to  me  by  the  Master 
of  the  Fellowship,  and   the  King's   Son  of 


95 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

Heaven  to  tell  me  what  shall  be  ?  If  that  be 
so  tell  me  straight  out,  since  I  had  some 
deeming  hereof  before ;  whereas  thy  speech 
is  like  ours  and  yet  unlike,  and  thy  face  hath 
something  in  it  which  is  not  after  the  fashion 
of  our  day.  And  yet  take  heed,  if  thou  art 
such  an  one,  I  fear  thee  not,  nay,  nor  him 
that  sent  thee ;  nor  for  thy  bidding,  nor 
for  his,  will  I  turn  back  from  London  Bridge 
but  will  press  on,  for  I  do  what  is  meet 
and  right.' 

'  Nay,'  said  I,  '  did  I  not  tell  thee  e'en  now 
that  I  knew  life  but  not  death .-'  I  am  not 
dead ;  and  as  to  who  hath  sent  me,  I  say 
not  that  I  am  come  by  my  own  will ;  for  I 
know  not ;  yet  also  I  know  not  the  will  that 
hath  sent  me  hither.  And  this  I  say  to  thee, 
moreover,  that  if  I  know  more  than  thou,  I 
do  far  less;  therefore  thou  art  my  captain 
and  I  thy  minstrel.' 

He  sighed  as  one  from  whom  a  weight  had 
been  lifted,  and  said :  '  Well,  then,  since  thou 
art  alive  on  the  earth  and  a  man  like  myself, 
tell  me  how  deemest  thou  of  our  adventure : 
shall  we  come  to  London,  and  how  shall  we 
fare  there  ? ' 

Said  I,  '  What  shall  hinder  you  to  come  to 
London,  and  to  fare  there  as  ye  will  ?  For  be 
sure  that  the  Fellowship  in  Essex  shall  not 
fail  you ;  nor  shall  the  Londoners  who  hate 


96 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

the  king's  uncles  withstand  you ;  nor  hath 
the  Court  any  great  force  to  meet  you  in  the 
field ;  ye  shall  cast  fear  and  trembling  into 
their  hearts.* 

•  Even  so,  I  thought,'  said  he ;  '  but  after- 
wards what  shall  betide  ? ' 

Said  I,  '  It  grieves  my  heart  to  say  that 
which  I  think.  Yet  hearken  ;  many  a  man's 
son  shall  die  who  is  now  alive  and  happy, 
and  if  the  soldiers  be  slain,  and  of  them  most 
not  on  the  field,  but  by  the  lawyers,  how 
shall  the  captains  escape  ?  Surely  thou  goest 
to  thy  death.' 

He  smiled  very  sweetly,  yet  proudly,  as  he 
said  :  '  Yea,  the  road  is  long,  but  the  end 
cometh  at  last.  Friend,  many  a  day  have  I 
been  dying ;  for  my  sister,  with  whom  I  have 
played  and  been  merry  in  the  autumn  tide 
about  the  edges  of  the  stubble-fields ;  and 
we  gathered  the  nuts  and  bramble-berries 
there,  and  started  thence  the  missel -thrush, 
and  wondered  at  his  voice  and  thought 
him  big ;  and  the  sparrow-hawk  wheeled  and 
turned  over  the  hedges  and  the  weasel  ran 
across  the  path,  and  the  sound  of  the  sheep- 
bells  came  to  us  from  the  downs  as  we  sat 
happy  on  the  grass ;  and  she  is  dead  and 
gone  from  the  earth,  for  she  pined  from 
famine  after  the  years  of  the  great  sickness ; 
and  my  brother  was  slain  in  the  French  wars, 


97 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

and  none  thanked  him  for  dying  save  he  that 
stripped  him  of  his  gear  ;  and  my  unwedded 
wife  with  whom  I  dwelt  in  love  after  I  had 
taken  the  tonsure,  and  all  men  said  she  was 
good  and  fair,  and  true  she  was  and  lovely  ; 
she  also  is  dead  and  gone  from  the  earth ; 
and  why  should  I  abide  save  for  the  deeds 
of  the  flesh  which  must  be  done  ?  Truly, 
friend,  this  is  but  an  old  tale  that  men  must 
die ;  and  I  will  tell  thee  another,  to  wit,  that 
they  live  :  and  I  live  now  and  shall  live. 
Tell  me  then  what  shall  befall.' 

Somehow  I  could  not  heed  him  as  a  living 
man  as  much  as  I  had  done,  and  the  voice 
that  came  from  me  seemed  less  of  me  as  I 
answered : 

•  These  men  are  strong  and  valiant  as  any 
that  have  been  or  shall  be,  and  good  fellows 
also  and  kindly ;  but  they  are  simple,  and  see 
no  great  way  before  their  own  noses.  The 
victory  shall  they  have  and  shall  not  know 
what  to  do  with  it ;  they  shall  fight  and  over- 
come, because  of  their  lack  of  knowledge, 
and  because  of  their  lack  of  knowledge 
shall  they  be  cozened  and  betrayed  when 
their  captains  are  slain,  and  all  shall  come  to 
nought  by  seeming;  and  the  king's  uncles 
shall  prevail,  that  both  they  and  the  king 
may  come  to  the  shame  that  is  appointed 
for  them.   And  yet  when  the  lords  have  van- 


98 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

quished,  and  all  England  lieth  under  them 
again,  yet  shall  their  victory  be  fruitless ;  for 
the  free  men  that  hold  unfree  lands  shall 
they  not  bring  under  the  collar  again,  and 
villeinage  shall  slip  from  their  hands,  till 
there  be,  and  not  long  after  ye  are  dead, but 
few  unfree  men  in  England;  so  that  your 
lives  and  your  deaths  both  shall  bear  fruit.' 

'  Said  I  not,'  quoth  John  Ball,  '  that  thou 
wert  a  sending  from  other  times  ?  Good  is 
thy  message,  for  the  land  shall  be  free.  Tell 
on  now.' 

He  spoke  eagerly,  and  I  went  on  some- 
what sadly :  '  The  times  shall  better,  though 
the  king  and  lords  shall  worsen,  the  Gilds 
of  Craft  shall  wax  and  become  mightier ; 
more  recourse  shall  there  be  of  foreign  mer- 
chants. There  shall  be  plenty  in  the  land 
and  not  famine.  Where  a  man  nowearneth 
two  pennies  he  shall  earn  three.' 

'  Yea,'  said  he,  '  then  shall  those  that 
labour  become  strong  and  stronger,  and  so 
soon  shall  it  come  about  that  all  men  shall 
work  and  none  make  to  work,  and  so  shall 
none  be  robbed,  and  at  last  shall  all  men 
labour  and  live  and  be  happy,  and  have  the 
goods  of  the  earth  without  money  and  with- 
out price.' 

'V'ea,'said  I, 'that  shall  indeed  come  to  pass, 
but  not  yet  for  a  while,  and  belike  a  long  while.' 


99 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BAIX 

And  I  sat  for  long  without  speaking,  and 
the  church  grew  darker  as  the  moon  waned 
yet  more. 

Then  I  said  :  '  Bethink  thee  that  these  men 
shall  yet  have  masters  over  them,  who  have 
at  hand  many  a  law  and  custom  for  the  be- 
hoof of  masters,  and  being  masters  can  make 
yet  more  laws  in  the  same  behoof ;  and  they 
shall  suffer  poor  people  to  thrive  just  so  long 
as  their  thriving  shall  profit  the  mastership 
and  no  longer ;  and  so  shall  it  be  in  those  days 
I  tell  of;  for  there  shall  be  king  and  lords 
and  knights  and  squires  still,  with  servants 
to  do  their  bidding,  and  make  honest  men 
afraid ;  and  all  these  will  make  nothing  and 
eat  much  as  aforetime,  and  the  more  that  is 
made  in  the  land  the  more  shall  they  crave.' 

'  Yea,'  said  he,  '  that  wot  I  well,  that  these 
are  of  the  kin  of  the  daughters  of  the  horse- 
leech; but  how  shall  they  slake  their  greed, 
seeing  that  as  thou  sayest  villeinage  shall  be 
gone  ?  Belike  their  men  shall  pay  them  quit- 
rents  and  do  them  service,  as  free  men  may, 
but  all  this  according  to  law  and  not  beyond 
it ;  so  that  though  the  workers  shall  be  richer 
than  they  now  be,  the  lords  shall  be  no  richer, 
and  so  all  shall  be  on  the  road  to  being  free 
and  equal.' 

Said  I,  'Look  you,  friend;  aforetime  the 
lords,  for  the  most  part,  held  the  land  and 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

all  that  was  on  it,  and  the  men  that  were  on 
it  worked  for  them  as  their  horses  worked, 
and  after  they  were  fed  and  housed  all  was 
the  lords ; '  but  in  the  time  to  come  the 
lords  shall  see  their  men  thriving  on  the  land, 
and  shall  say  once  more,  '  These  men  have 
more  than  they  need,  why  have  we  not  the 
surplus  since  we  are  their  lords  ? '  Moreover, 
in  those  days  shall  betide  much  chaffering 
for  wares  between  man  and  man,  and  coun- 
try and  country;  and  the  lords  shall  note 
that  if  there  were  less  corn  and  less  men  on 
their  lands  there  would  be  more  sheep,  that 
is  to  say  more  wool  for  chaffer,  and  that 
thereof  they  should  have  abundantly  more 
than  aforetime ;  since  all  the  land  they  own, 
and  it  pays  them  quit-rent  or  service,  save 
here  and  there  a  croft  or  a  close  of  a  yeo- 
man ;  and  all  this  might  grow  wool  for  them 
to  sell  to  the  Easterlings.  Then  shall  Eng- 
land see  a  new  thing,  for  whereas  hitherto 
men  have  lived  on  the  land  and  by  it,  the 
land  shall  no  longer  need  them,  but  many 
sheep  and  a  few  shepherds  shall  make  wool 
grow  to  be  sold  for  money  to  the  Easter- 
lings, and  that  money  shall  the  lords  pouch : 
for,  look  you,  they  shall  set  the  lawyers 
a-work  and  the  strong  hand  moreover,  and 
the  land  they  shall  take  to  themselves  and 
their  sheep;  and  except  for  these  lords  of 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

land  few  shall  be  the  free  men  that  shall  hold 
a  rood  of  land  whom  the  word  of  their  lord 
may  not  turn  adrift  straightway.' 

•  How  mean  you  ? '  said  John  Ball :  '  shall 
all  men  be  villeins  again  ? ' 

'  Nay,'  said  I,  '  there  shall  be  no  villeins  in 
England.' 

'  Surely  then,'  said  he,  '  it  shall  be  worse, 
and  all  men  save  a  few  shall  be  thralls  to  be 
bought  and  sold  at  the  cross.' 

'  Good  friend,'  said  I,  '  it  shall  not  be  so ; 
all  men  shall  be  free  even  as  ye  would  have 
it;  yet,  as  I  say,  few  indeed  shall  have  so 
much  land  as  they  can  stand  upon  save  by 
buying  such  a  grace  of  their  masters.' 

'  And  now,'  said  he,  '  I  wot  not  what  thou 
sayest.  I  know  a  thrall,  and  he  is  his  mas- 
ter's every  hour,  and  never  his  own ;  and  a 
villein  I  know,  and  whiles  he  is  his  own  and 
whiles  his  lord's ;  and  I  know  a  free  man, 
and  he  is  his  own  always ;  but  how  shall  he 
be  his  own  if  he  have  nought  whereby  to 
make  his  livelihood  ?  Or  shall  he  be  a  thief 
and  take  from  others .'  Then  is  he  an  out- 
law. Wonderful  is  this  thou  tellest  of  a  free 
man  with  nought  whereby  to  live ! ' 

'  Yet  so  shall  it  be,'  said  I,  '  and  by  such 
free  men  shall  all  wares  be  made.' 

'  Nay,  that  cannot  be ;  thou  art  talking  rid- 
dles,' said  he;  'for  how  shall  a  wood-wright 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

make  a  chest  without  the  wood  and  the  tools  ? ' 

Said  I,  '  He  must  needs  buy  leave  to 
labour  of  them  that  own  all  things  except 
himself  and  such  as  himself.' 

*  Yea,  but  wherewith  shall  he  buy  it  ? '  said 
John  Ball.   •  What  hath  he  except  himself  ? ' 

'  With  himself  then  shall  he  buy  it,'  quoth 
I ;  '  with  his  body  and  the  power  of  labour 
that  lieth  therein ;  with  the  price  of  his 
labour  shall  he  buy  leave  to  labour.' 

•Riddles  again!'  said  he;  'how  can  he 
sell  his  labour  for  aught  else  but  his  daily 
bread  ?  He  must  win  by  his  labour  meat  and 
drink  and  clothing  and  housing  I  Can  he 
sell  his  labour  twice  over  ? ' 

'  Not  so,'  said  I,  '  but  this  shall  he  do 
belike ;  he  shall  sell  himself,  that  is  the 
labour  that  is  in  him,  to  the  master  that  suf- 
fers him  to  w^ork,  and  that  master  shall  give 
to  him  from  out  of  the  wares  he  maketh 
enough  to  keep  him  alive,  and  to  beget 
children  and  nourish  them  till  they  be  old 
enough  to  be  sold  like  himself,  and  the 
residue  shall  the  rich  man  keep  to  himself.' 

John  Ball  laughed  aloud,  and  said  :  '  Well, 
I  perceive  we  are  not  yet  out  of  the  land  of 
riddles.  The  man  may  well  do  what  thou 
sayest  and  live,  but  he  may  not  do  it  and 
live  a  free  man.' 

'  Thou  sayest  sooth,'  said  I. 

«o3 


XI 


HARD   IT   IS   FOR  THE    OLD    WORLD    TO   SEE 
THE   NEW 

HE  held  his  peace  awhile,  and  then  he 
said  :  '  But  no  man  selleth  himself  and 
hb  children  into  thraldom  uncompelled ;  nor 
is  any  fool  so  great  a  fool  as  willingly  to 
take  the  name  of  freeman  and  the  life  of  a 
thrall  as  payment  for  the  very  life  of  a  free- 
man. Now  would  I  ask  thee  somewhat 
else  ;  and  I  am  the  readier  to  do  so  since  I 
perceive  that  thou  art  a  wondrous  seer ;  for 
surely  no  man  could  of  his  own  wit  have 
imagined  a  tale  of  such  follies  as  thou  hast 
told  me.  Now  well  I  wot  that  men  having 
once  shaken  themselves  clear  of  the  burden 
of  villeinage,  as  thou  sayest  we  shall  do  (and 
I  bless  thee  for  the  word),  shall  never  bow 
down  to  this  worser  tyranny  without  sore 
strife  in  the  world ;  and  surely  so  sore  shall 
it  be,  before  our  valiant  sons  give  way,  that 
maids  and  little  lads  shall  take  the  sword 
and  the  spear,  and  in  many  a  field  men's 
blood  and  not  water  shall  turn  the  grist- 
mills of  England.  But  when  all  this  is  over, 
and  the  tyranny  is  establbhed,  because  there 
are  but  few  men  in  the  land  after  the  great 
war,  how  shall  it  be  with  you  then?  Will 
there  not  be  many  soldiers  and  sergeants  and 
few   workers .''     Surely   in    every   parish   ye 

104 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

shall  have  the  constables  to  see  that  the  men 
work ;  and  they  shall  be  saying  every  day, 
"  Such  an  one,  hast  thou  yet  sold  thyself  for 
this  day  or  this  week  or  this  year  ?  Go  to 
now,  and  get  thy  bargain  done,  or  it  shall  be 
the  worse  for  thee."  And  wheresoever  work 
is  going  on  there  shall  be  constables  again, 
and  those  that  labour  shall  labour  under  the 
whip  like  the  Hebrews  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 
And  every  man  that  may,  will  steal  as  a  dog 
snatches  at  a  bone ;  and  there  again  shall  ye 
need  more  soldiers  and  more  constables  till 
the  land  is  eaten  up  by  them ;  nor  shall  the 
lords  and  the  masters  even  be  able  to  bear 
the  burden  of  it ;  nor  will  their  gains  be  so 
great,  since  that  which  each  man  may  do  in 
a  day  is  not  right  great  when  all  is  said.' 

'  Friend,'  said  I,  '  from  thine  own  valiancy 
and  high  heart  thou  speakest,  when  thousay- 
est  that  they  who  fall  under  this  tyranny  shall 
fight  to  the  death  against  it.  Wars  indeed 
there  shall  be  in  the  %vorld,  great  and  griev- 
ous, and  yet  few  on  this  score ;  rather  shall 
men  fight  as  they  have  been  fighting  in 
France  at  the  bidding  of  some  lord  of  the 
manor,  or  some  king,  or  at  last  at  the  bidding 
of  some  usurer  and  forestaller  of  the  market. 
Valiant  men,  forsooth,  shall  arise  in  the 
beginning  of  these  evil  times,  but  though 
they  shall  die  as  ye  shall,  yet  shall  not  their 

105 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

deaths  be  fruitful  as  yours  shall  be ;  because 
ye,  forsooth,  are  fighting  against  villeinage 
which  is  waning,  but  they  shall  fight  against 
usury  which  is  waxing.  And,  moreover,  I 
have  been  telling  thee  how  it  shall  be  when 
the  measure  of  the  time  is  full;  and  we, 
looking  at  these  things  from  afar,  can  see 
them  as  they  are  indeed ;  but  they  who  live  at 
the  beginning  of  those  times  and  amidst  them, 
shall  not  know  what  is  doing  around  them ; 
they  shall  indeed  feel  the  plague  and  yet  not 
know  the  remedy ;  by  little  and  by  little  they 
shall  fall  from  their  better  livelihood,  and 
weak  and  helpless  shall  they  grow,  and  have 
no  might  to  withstand  the  evil  of  this 
tyranny;  and  then  again  when  the  times 
mend  somewhat  and  they  have  but  a  little 
more  ease,  then  shall  it  be  to  them  like  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  and  they  shall  have  no 
will  to  withstand  any  tyranny,  but  shall  think 
themselves  happy  that  they  be  pinched 
somewhat  less.  Also  whereas  thou  sayest 
that  there  shall  be  for  ever  constables  and 
sergeants  going  to  and  fro  to  drive  men  to 
work,  and  that  they  will  not  work  save  under 
the  lash,  thou  art  wrong  and  it  shall  not  be 
so ;  for  there  shall  ever  be  more  workers 
than  the  masters  may  set  to  work,  so  that 
men  shall  strive  eagerly  for  leave  to  work ; 
and  when  one  says,  I  will  sell  my  hours  at 

io6 


A   DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

such  and  such  a  price,  then  another  will  say, 
and  I  for  so  much  less ;  so  that  never  shall 
the  lords  lack  slaves  willing  to  work,  but 
often  the  slaves  shall  lack  lords  to  buy 
them.' 

'  Thou  tellest  marvels  indeed,'  said  he ; 
'  but  how  then  ?  if  all  the  churls  work  not, 
shall  there  not  be  famine  and  lack  of  wares  ? ' 

'Famine  enough,'  said  I,  'yet  not  from 
lack  of  w^ares ;  it  shall  be  clean  contrary. 
What  wilt  thou  say  when  I  tell  thee  that  in 
the  latter  days  there  shall  be  such  traffic  and 
such  speedy  travel  across  the  seas  that  most 
wares  shall  be  good  cheap,  and  bread  of  all 
things  the  cheapest  ? ' 

Quoth  he  :  '  I  should  say  that  then  there 
would  be  better  livelihood  for  men,  for  in 
times  of  plenty  it  is  well ;  for  then  men  eat 
that  which  their  own  hands  have  harvested, 
and  need  not  to  spend  of  their  substance  in 
buying  of  others.  Truly,  it  is  well  for  honest 
men,  but  not  so  well  for  forestallers  and 
regraters;'     but    who   heeds   what   befalls 

I  Forestaller,  one  who  buys  up  goods  when  they  are 
cheap,  and  so  raises  the  price  for  his  own  benefit ; 
forestalls  the  due  and  real  demand.  Regrater,  one 
wlio  both  buys  and  sells  in  the  same  market,  or  within 
five  miles  thereof ;  buys,  say  a  ton  of  cheese  at  lo  a.  m. 
and  sells  it  at  5  p.  m.  a  penny  a  pound  dearer  without 
moving  from  his  chair.  The  word  'monopolist'  will 
cover  both  species  of  tliief. 


107 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

such  foul  swine,  who  filch  the  money  from 
people's  purses,  and  do  not  one  hair's  turn  of 
work  to  help  them  ? ' 

'  Yea,  friend,'  I  said,  '  but  in  those  latter 
days  all  power  shall  be  in  the  hands  of  these 
foul  swine,  and  they  shall  be  the  rulers  of  all ; 
therefore,  hearken,  for  I  tell  thee  that  times 
of  plenty  shall  in  those  days  be  the  times 
of  famine,  and  all  shall  pray  for  the 
prices  of  wares  to  rise,  so  that  the  forestall- 
ers  and  regraters  may  thrive,  and  that  some 
of  their  well-doing  may  overflow  on  to  those 
on  whom  they  live.' 

'  I  am  weary  of  thy  riddles,'  he  said.  '  Yet 
at  least  I  hope  that  there  may  be  fewer  and 
fewer  folk  in  the  land ;  as  may  well  be,  if  life 
is  then  so  foul  and  wretched.' 

'  Alas,  poor  man ! '  I  said ;  '  nor  mayst 
thou  imagine  how  foul  and  wretched  it  may  be 
for  many  of  the  folk :  and  yet  I  tell  thee  that 
men  shall  increase  and  multiply,  till  where 
there  is  one  man  in  the  land  now,  there  shall 
be  twenty  in  those  days  —  yea,  in  some 
places  ten  times  twenty.' 

'  1  have  but  little  heart  to  ask  thee  more 
questions,'  said  he;  '  and  when  thou  answer- 
est,  thy  words  are  plain,  but  the  things  they 
tell  of  I  may  scarce  understand.  But  tell  me 
this :  in  those  days  will  men  deem  that  so  it 
must  be  for  ever,  as  great  men  even  now  tell 

108 


A   DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

US  of  our  ills,  or  will  they  think  of  some 
remedy  ? 

I  looked  about  me.  There  was  but  a 
glimmer  of  light  in  the  church  now,  but  what 
there  was,  was  no  longer  the  strange  light  of 
the  moon,  but  the  first  coming  of  the  kindly 
day. 

'  Yea,'  said  John  Ball,  '  'tis  the  twilight  of 
the  dawn.  God  and  St.  Christopher  send 
us  a  good  day ! ' 

•  John  Ball,'  said  I,  '  I  have  told  thee  that 
thy  death  will  bring  about  that  which  thy 
life  has  striven  for:  thinkest  thou  that  the 
thing  which  thou  strivest  for  is  worth  the 
labour?  or  dost  thou  believe  in  the  tale  I 
have  told  thee  of  the  days  to  come  ? ' 

He  said  :  '  I  tell  thee  once  again  that  I 
trust  thee  for  a  seer;  because  no  man 
could  make  up  such  a  tale  as  thou;  the 
things  which  thou  tellest  are  too  wonderful 
for  a  minstrel,  the  tale  too  grievous.  And 
whereas  thou  askest  as  to  whether  I  count 
my  labour  lost,  I  say  nay;  if  so  be  that  in 
those  latter  times  ( and  worser  than  ours 
they  will  be  )  men  shall  yet  seek  a  remedy : 
therefore  again  I  ask  thee,  is  it  so  that  they 
shall  ? ' 

'  Yea,'  said  I,  •  and  their  remedy  shall  be 
the  same  as  thine,  although  the  days  be  differ- 
ent :  for  if  the  folk  be  enthralled,  what  rem- 

109 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

edy  save  that  they  be  set  free  ?  and  if  they 
have  tried  many  roads  towards  freedom,  and 
found  that  they  led  nowhither,  then  shall 
they  try  yet  another.  Yet  in  the  days  to 
come  they  shall  be  slothful  to  try  it,  because 
their  masters  shall  be  so  much  mightier 
than  thine,  that  they  shall  not  need  to  show 
the  high  hand,  and  until  the  days  get  to 
their  evilest,  men  shall  be  cozened  into 
thinking  that  it  is  of  their  ovvn  free  will  that 
they  must  needs  by  leave  to  labour  by  pawn- 
ing their  labour  that  is  to  be.  Moreover, 
your  lords  and  masters  seem  very  mighty  to 
you,  each  one  of  them,  and  so  they  are,  but 
they  are  few ;  and  the  masters  of  the  days  to 
come  shall  not  each  one  of  them  seem  very 
mighty  to  the  men  of  those  days,  but  they 
shall  be  very  many,  and  they  shall  be  of  one 
intent  in  these  matters  without  knowing  it; 
like  as  one  sees  the  oars  'of  a  galley  when 
the  rowers  are  hidden,  that  rise  and  fall  as  it 
were  with  one  will.' 

'And  yet,'  he  said,  'shall  it  not  be  the 
same  with  those  that  these  men  devour.' 
shall  not  they  also  have  one  will .' ' 

'  Friend,'  I  said,  '  they  shall  have  the  will 
to  live,  as  the  wretchedest  thing  living  has  : 
therefore  shall  they  sell  themselves  that  they 
may  live,  as  I  told  thee  ;  and  their  hard  need 
shall   be   their   lord's   easy   livelihood,   and 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN   BALL 

because  of  it  he  shall  sleep  without  fear, 
since  their  need  compelleth  them  not  to 
loiter  by  the  way  to  lament  with  friend  or 
brother  that  they  are  pinched  in  their  servi- 
tude, or  to  devise  means  for  ending  it.  And 
yet  indeed  thou  say  est  it :  they  also  shall 
have  one  will  if  they  but  knew  it ;  but  for  a 
long  while  they  shall  have  but  a  glimmer  of 
knowledge  of  it :  yet  doubt  it  not  that  in  the 
end  they  shall  come  to  know  it  clearly,  and 
then  shall  they  bring  about  the  remedy; 
and  in  those  days  shall  it  be  seen  that 
thou  hast  not  wrought  for  nothing,  because 
thou  hast  seen  beforehand  what  the  remedy 
should  be,  even  as  those  of  later  days  have 
seen  it.' 

We  both  sat  silent  a  little  while.  The 
twilight  was  gaining  on  the  night,  though 
slowly.  I  looked  at  the  poppy  which  I  still 
held  in  my  hand,  and  bethought  me  of  Will 
Green,  and  said : 

'  Lo,  how  the  light  is  spreading :  now  must 
I  get  me  back  to  Will  Green's  house  as  I 
promised.' 

'  Go,  then,'  said  he,  '  if  thou  wilt.  Yet 
meseems  before  long  he  shall  come  to  us ; 
and  then  mayst  though  sleep  among  the 
trees  on  the  green  grass  till  the  sun  is  high, 
for  the  host  shall  not  be  on  foot  very  early ; 
and  s^\eet  it  is  to  sleep  in  shadow  by  the  sun 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

in  the  full  morning  when  one  has  been  awake 
and  troubled  through  the  night-tide.' 

'  Yet  I  will  go  now,'  said  I ;  '  I  bid  thee 
good-night,  or  rather  good-morrow.' 

Therewith  I  half  rose  up ;  but  as  I  did  so 
the  will  to  depart  left  me  as  though  I  had 
never  had  it,  and  I  sat  down  again,  and 
heard  the  voice  of  John  Ball,  at  first  as  one 
speaking  from  far  away,  but  little  by  little 
growing  nearer  and  more  familiar  to  me,  and 
as  if  once  more  it  were  coming  from  the  man 
himself  whom  I  had  got  to  know. 


XII 

ILL   WOULD   CHANGE   BE   AT   WHILES   WERE 

IT   NOT   FOR   THE   CHANGE    BEYOND 

THE    CHANGE 

HE  said  :  '  Many  strange  things  hast  thou 
told  me  that  I  could  not  understand; 
yea,  some  my  wit  so  failed  to  compass,  that 
I  cannot  so  much  as  ask  thee  questions  con- 
cerning them  ;  but  of  some  matters  would  I 
ask  thee,  and  I  must  hasten,  for  in  very 
sooth  the  night  is  worn  old  and  grey. 
Whereas  thou  sayest  that  in  the  days  to 
come,  when  there  shall  be  no  labouring  men 
who  are  not  thralls  after  their  new  fashion, 
that  their  lords  shall  be  many  and  very 
many,  it  seemeth  to  me  that  these  same 
lords,  if  they  be  many,  shall  hardly  be  rich, 
or  but  very  few  of  them,  since  they  must 
verily  feed  and  clothe  and  house  their 
thralls,  so  that  that  which  they  take  from 
them,  since  it  will  have  to  be  dealt  out 
amongst  many,  will  not  be  enough  to  make 
many  rich ;  since  out  of  one  man  ye  may  get 
but  one  man's  work  ;  and  pinch  him  never  so 
sorely,  still  as  aforesaid  ye  may  not  pinch 
him  so  sorely  as  not  to  feed  him.  Therefore, 
though  the  eyes  of  my  mind  may  see  a  few 
lords  and  many  slaves,  yet  can  they  not  see 
many  lords  as  well  as  many  slaves;  and  if 


"3 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

the  slaves  be  many  and  the  lords  few,  then 
some  day  shall  the  slaves  make  an  end  of 
that  mastery  by  the  force  of  their  bodies. 
How  then  shall  thy  mastership  of  the  latter 
days  endure  ? ' 

'  John  Ball/  said  I, '  mastership  hath  many 
shifts  whereby  it  striveth  to  keep  itself  alive 
in  the  world.  And  now  hear  a  marvel : 
whereas  thou  sayest  these  two  times  that  out 
of  one  man  ye  may  get  but  one  man's  work, 
in  days  to  come  one  man  shall  do  the  work 
of  a  hundred  men  —  yea,  of  a  thousand  or 
more :  and  this  is  the  shift  of  mastership 
that  shall  make  many  masters  and  many  rich 
men.' 

John  Ball  laughed.  '  Great  is  my  harvest 
of  riddles  to-night,'  said  he ;  '  for  even  if  a 
man  sleep  not,  and  eat  and  drink  while  he  is 
a-working,  ye  shall  but  make  two  men,  or 
three  at  the  most,  out  of  him.' 

Said  I :  '  Sawest  thou  ever  a  weaver  at  his 
loom  ?  ' 

'  Yea,'  said  he,  '  many  a  time.' 

He  was  silent  a  little, and  then  said:  '  Vet 
I  marvelled  not  at  it;  but  now  I  marvel, 
because  I  know  what  thou  wouldst  say. 
Time  was  when  the  shuttle  was  thrust  in  and 
out  of  all  the  thousand  threads  of  the  warp, 
and  it  was  long  to  do ;  but  now  the  spring- 
staves  go  up  and  down  as  the   man's  feet 

114 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

move,  and  this  and  that  leaf  of  the  warp 
cometh  forward  and  the  shuttle  goeth  in  one 
shot  through  all  the  thousand  warps.  Yea, 
so  it  is  that  this  multiplieth  a  man  many 
times.  But  look  you,  he  is  so  multiplied 
already  ;  and  so  hath  he  been,  meseemeth, 
for  many  hundred  years.' 

•  Yea,'  said  I,  '  but  what  hitherto  needed 
the  masters  to  multiply  him  more  ?  For 
many  hundred  years  the  workman  was  a 
thrall  bought  and  sold  at  the  cross;  and  for 
other  hundreds  of  years  he  hath  been  a 
villein  —  that  is,  a  working-beast  and  a  part 
of  the  stock  of  the  manor  on  which  he  liveth  ; 
but  then  thou  and  the  like  of  thee  shall  free 
him,  and  then  is  mastership  put  to  its  shifts ; 
for  what  should  avail  the  mastery  then,  when 
the  master  no  longer  owneth  the  man  by 
law  as  his  chattel,  nor  any  longer  by  law 
owneth  him  as  stock  of  his  land,  if  the 
master  hath  not  that  which  he  on  whom  he 
liveth  may  not  lack  and  live  withal,  and 
cannot  have  without  selling  himself.' ' 

He  said  nothing,  but  I  saw  his  brow 
knitted  and  his  lips  pressed  together  as 
though  in  anger;  and  again  I  said: 

'  Thou  hast  seen  the  weaver  at  his  loom  : 
think  how  it  should  be  if  he  sit  no  longer 
before  the  web  and  cast  the  shuttle  and  draw 
home  the  sley,  but  if  the  shed  open  of  itself 


"5 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

and  the  shuttle  of  itself  speed  through  it  as 
swift  as  the  eye  can  follow,  and  the  sley  come 
home  of  itself  ;  and  the  weaver  standing  by 
and  whistling  The  Hunfs  up  !  the  while,  or 
looking  to  half-a-dozen  looms  and  bidding 
them  what  to  do.  And  as  with  the  weaver 
so  with  the  potter,  and  the  smith,  and  every 
worker  in  metals,  and  all  other  crafts,  that  it 
shall  be  for  them  looking  on  and  tending,  as 
with  the  man  that  sitteth  in  the  cart  while 
the  horse  draws.  Yea,  at  last  so  shall  it  be 
even  with  those  who  are  mere  husbandmen; 
and  no  longer  shall  the  reaper  fare  afield  in 
the  morning  with  his  hook  over  his  shoulder, 
and  smite  and  bind  and  smite  again  till  the 
sun  is  down  and  the  moon  is  up;  but 
he  shall  draw  a  thing  made  by  men  into 
the  field  with  one  or  two  horses,  and  shall 
say  the  word  and  the  horses  shall  go  up  and 
down,  and  the  thing  shall  reap  and  gather 
and  bind,  and  do  the  work  of  many  men. 
Imagine  all  this  in  thy  mind  if  thou  canst,  at 
least  as  ye  may  imagine  a  tale  of  enchant- 
ment told  by  a  minstrel,  and  then  tell  me 
what  shouldst  thou  deem  that  the  life  of 
men  would  be  amidst  all  this,  men  such  as 
these  men  of  the  township  here,  or  the  men 
of  the  Canterbury  gilds.' 

'  Yea,'  said  he  ;  '  but  before  I  tell  thee  my 
thoughts  of  thy  tale  of  wonder,  I  would  ask 

ii6 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

thee  this :  In  those  days  when  men  work  so 
easily,  surely  they  shall  make  more  wares 
than  they  can  use  in  one  country-side,  or  one 
good  town,  whereas  in  another,  where  things 
have  not  gone  as  well,  they  shall  have  less 
than  they  need ;  and  even  so  it  is  with 
us  now,  and  thereof  cometh  scarcity  and 
famine ;  and  if  people  may  not  come  at  each 
other's  goods,  it  availeth  the  whole  land 
little  that  one  country-side  hath  more  than 
enough  while  another  hath  less ;  for  the 
goods  shall  abide  there  in  the  storehouses  of 
the  rich  place  till  they  perish.  So  if  that  be 
so  in  the  days  of  wonder  ye  tell  of  ( and  I  see 
not  how  it  can  be  otherwise ),  then  shall  men 
be  but  little  holpen  by  making  all  their 
wares  so  easily  and  with  so  little  labour.' 

I  smiled  again  and  said :  '  Yea,  but  it  shall 
not  be  so  ;  not  only  shall  men  be  multiplied 
a  hundred  and  a  thousand  fold,  but  the  dis- 
tance of  one  place  from  another  shall  be  as 
nothing;  so  that  the  wares  which  lie  ready 
for  market  in  Durham  in  the  evening  may  be 
in  London  on  the  morrow  morning;  and  the 
men  of  Wales  may  eat  com  of  Essex  and 
the  men  of  Essex  wear  wool  of  Wales  ;  so 
that,  so  far  as  the  flitting  of  goods  to  market 
goes,  all  the  land  shall  be  as  one  parish. 
Nay,  what  say  I  ?  Not  as  to  this  land  only 
shall  it  be  so,  but  even  the  Indies,  and  far 


117 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

countries  of  which  thou  knowest  not,  shall 
be,  so  to  say,  at  every  man's  door,  and  wares 
which  now  ye  account  precious  and  dear- 
bought,  shall  then  be  common  things  bought 
and  sold  for  little  price  at  every  huckster's 
stall.  Say  then,  John,  shall  not  those  days 
be  merry,  and  plentiful  of  ease  and  content- 
ment for  all  men  ? ' 

'  Brother,'  said  he,  '  meseemeth  some  dole- 
ful mockery  lieth  under  these  joyful  tidings 
of  thine ;  since  thou  hast  already  partly  told 
me  to  my  sad  bewilderment  what  the  life  of 
man  shall  be  in  those  days.  Yet  will  I  now 
for  a  little  set  all  that  aside  to  consider  thy 
strange  tale  as  of  a  minstrel  from  over  sea, 
even  as  thou  biddest  me.  Therefore  I  say, 
that  if  men  still  abide  men  as  I  have  known 
them,  and  unless  these  folk  of  England 
change  as  the  land  changeth  —  and  forsooth 
of  the  men,  for  good  and  for  evil,  I  can 
think  no  other  than  I  think  now,  or  behold 
them  other  than  I  have  known  them  and 
loved  them  —  I  say  if  the  men  be  still  men, 
what  will  happen  except  that  there  should  be 
all  plenty  in  the  land,  and  not  one  poor  man 
therein,  unless  of  his  own  free  will  he  chose 
to  lack  and  be  poor,  as  a  man  in  religion  or 
such  like ;  for  there  would  then  be  such 
abundance  of  all  good  things,  that,  as  greedy 
as  the  lords  might  be,  there  would  be  enough 

Ii8 


A   DREAM   OF  JOHN   BALL 

to  satisfy  their  greed  and  yet  leave  good 
living  for  all  who  laboured  with  their  hands ; 
so  that  these  should  labour  far  less  than 
now,  and  they  would  have  time  to  learn 
knowledge,  so  that  there  should  soon  be 
no  learned  and  unlearned,  for  all  should  be 
learned ;  and  they  would  have  time  also  to 
learn  how  to  order  the  matters  of  the  parish 
and  the  hundred,  and  of  the  parliament  of 
the  realm,  so  that  the  king  should  take  no 
more  than  his  own ;  and  to  order  the  rule  of 
the  realm,  so  that  all  men,  rich  and  unrich, 
should  have  part  therein  ;  and  so  by  undoing 
of  evil  laws  and  making  of  good  ones,  that 
fashion  would  come  to  an  end  whereof  thou 
speakest,  that  rich  men  make  laws  for  their 
own  behoof;  for  they  should  no  longer  be 
able  to  do  thus  when  all  had  part  in  making 
the  laws ;  whereby  it  would  soon  come 
about  that  there  would  be  no  men  rich  and 
tyrannous,  but  all  should  have  enough  and 
to  spare  of  the  increase  of  the  earth  and  the 
work  of  their  own  hands.  Yea  surely, 
brother,  if  ever  it  cometh  about  that  men 
shall  be  able  to  make  things,  and  not  men, 
work  for  their  superfluities,  and  that  the 
length  of  travel  from  one  place  to  another 
be  made  of  no  account,  and  all  the  world  be 
a  market  for  all  the  world,  then  all  shall  live 
in  health  and  wealth ;  and  envy  and  grudging 

119 


A   DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

shall  perish.  For  then  shall  we  have  con- 
quered the  earth  and  it  shall  be  enough ;  and 
then  shall  the  kingdom  of  heaven  be  come 
down  to  the  earth  in  very  deed.  Why  look- 
est  thou  so  sad  and  sorry.?  what  sayest 
thou?' 

I  said :  '  Hast  thou  forgotten  already 
what  I  told  thee,  that  in  those  latter  days  a 
man  who  hath  nought  save  his  own  body 
(and  such  men  shall  be  far  the  most  of  men ) 
must  needs  pawn  his  labour  for  leave  to 
labour  ?  Can  such  a  man  be  wealthy  ?  Hast 
thou  not  called  him  a  thrall  ? ' 

'  Yea,' he  said;  'but  how  could  I  deem 
that  such  things  could  be  when  those  days 
should  be  come  wherein  men  could  make 
things  work  for  them  ? ' 

'  Poor  man  1 '  said  I.  '  Learn  that  in  those 
very  days,  when  it  shall  be  with  the  making 
of  things  as  with  the  carter  in  the  cart,  that 
there  he  sitteth  and  shaketh  the  reins  and  the 
horse  draweth  and  the  cart  goeth ;  in  those 
days,  I  tell  thee,  many  men  shall  be  as  poor 
and  wretched  always,  year  by  year,  as  they 
are  with  thee  when  there  is  famine  in  the 
land ;  nor  shall  any  have  plenty  and  surety 
of  livelihood  save  those  that  shall  sit  by  and 
look  on  while  others  labour;  and  these,  I 
tell  thee,  shall  be  a  many,  so  that  they  shall 
see  to  the  making  of  all  laws,  and  in  their 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

hands  shall  be  all  power,  and  the  labourers 
shall  think  that  they  cannot  do  without  these 
men  that  live  by  robbing  them,  and  shall 
praise  them  and  wellnigh  pray  to  them  as  ye 
pray  to  the  saints,  and  the  best  worshipped 
man  in  the  land  shall  be  he  who  by  forestall- 
ing and  regrating  hath  gotten  to  him  the 
most  money.' 

'  Yea,'  said  he,  '  and  shall  they  who  see 
themselves  robbed  worship  the  robber? 
Then  indeed  shall  men  be  changed  from  what 
they  are  now,  and  they  shall  be  sluggards, 
dolts,  and  cowards  beyond  all  the  earth  hath 
yet  borne.  Such  are  not  the  men  I  have 
known  in  my  life-days,  and  that  now  I  love 
in  my  death.' 

'  Nay,'  I  said,  '  but  the  robbery  shall  they 
not  see ;  for  have  I  not  told  thee  that  they 
shall  hold  themselves  to  be  free  men  .••  And 
for  why.'  I  will  tell  thee:  but  first  tell  me 
how  it  fares  with  men  now ;  may  the  labour- 
ing man  become  a  lord  ? 

He  said :  '  The  thing  hath  been  seen  that 
churls  have  risen  from  the  dortoir  of  the 
monastery  to  the  abbot's  chair  and  the 
bishop's  throne ;  yet  not  often ;  and  whiles 
hath  a  bold  sergeant  become  a  wise  captain, 
and  they  have  made  him  squire  and  knight ; 
and  yet  but  very  seldom.  And  now  I  sup- 
pose thou  wilt  tell  me  that  the  Church  will 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

open  her  arms  wider  to  this  poor  people,  and 
that  many  through  her  shall  rise  into  lord- 
ship. But  what  availeth  that  ?  Nought 
were  it  to  me  if  the  Abbot  of  St.  Alban's 
with  his  golden  mitre  sitting  guarded  by  his 
knights  and  sergeants,  or  the  Prior  of  Merton 
with  his  hawks  and  his  hounds,  had  once 
been  poor  men,  if  they  were  now  tyrants  of 
poor  men  ;  nor  would  it  better  the  matter  if 
there  were  ten  times  as  many  Houses  of 
Religion  in  the  land  than  now  are,  and  each 
mth  a  churl's  son  for  abbot  or  prior  over  it.' 

I  smiled  and  said :  '  Comfort  thyself ;  for 
in  those  days  shall  there  be  neither  abbey 
nor  priory  in  the  land,  nor  monks  nor  friars, 
nor  any  religious.'  (He  started  as  I  spoke.) 
'  But  thou  hast  told  me  that  hardly  in  these 
days  may  a  poor  man  rise  to  be  a  lord  :  now 
I  tell  thee  that  in  the  days  to  come  poor  men 
shall  be  able  to  become  lords  and  masters 
and  do-nothings;  and  oft  will  it  be  seen  that 
they  shall  do  so;  and  it  shall  be  even  for 
that  cause  that  their  eyes  shall  be  blinded  to 
the  robbing  of  themselves  by  others,  because 
they  shall  hope  in  their  souls  that  they  may 
each  live  to  rob  others  :  and  this  shall  be  the 
very  safeguard  of  all  rule  and  law  in  those 
days.' 

'  Now  am  I  sorrier  than  thou  hast  yet 
made  me,*  said  he;  'for  when  once  this  is 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

established,  how  then  can  it  be  changed  ? 
Strong  shall  be  the  tyranny  of  thy  latter 
days.  And  now  meseems,  if  thou  sayest 
sooth,  this  time  of  the  conquest  of  the  earth 
shall  not  bring  heaven  down  to  the  earth,  as 
erst  I  deemed  it  would,  but  rather  that  it 
shall  bring  hell  up  on  to  the  earth.  Woe's 
me,  brother,  for  thy  sad  and  weary  fore- 
telling I  And  yet  saidst  thou  that  the  men  of 
those  days  would  seek  a  remedy.  Canst  thou 
yet  tell  me,  brother,  what  that  remedy  shall 
be,  lest  the  sun  rise  upon  me  made  hopeless 
by  thy  tale  of  what  is  to  be  ?  And,  lo  you, 
soon  shall  she  rise  upon  the  earth.' 

In  truth  the  dawn  was  widening  now,  and 
the  colours  coming  into  the  pictures  on  wall 
and  in  window ;  and  as  well  as  I  could  see 
through  the  varied  glazing  of  these  last  (  and 
one  window  before  me  had  as  yet  nothing 
but  white  glass  in  it ),  the  ruddy  glow,  which 
had  but  so  little  a  while  quite  died  out  in  the 
west,  was  now  beginning  to  gather  in  the 
east  —  the  new  day  was  beginning.  I  looked 
at  the  poppy  that  I  still  carried  in  my  hand, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  to  have  withered  and 
dwindled.  I  felt  anxious  to  speak  to  my 
companion  and  tell  him  much,  and  withal  I 
felt  that  I  must  hasten,  or  for  some  reason  or 
other  I  should  be  too  late ;  so  I  spoke  at 
last  loud  and  hurriedly : 

123 


A    DREAM    OF   JOHN    BALL 

*  John  Ball,  be  of  good  cheer ;  for  once 
more  thou  knowest,  as  I  know,  that  the  Fel- 
lowship of  Men  shall  endure,  however  many 
tribulations  it  may  have  to  wear  through. 
Look  you,  a  while  ago  was  the  light  bright 
about  us;  but  it  was  because  of  the  moon, 
and  the  night  was  deep  notwithstanding,  and 
when  the  moonlight  waned  and  died  and 
there  was  but  a  little  glimmer  in  place  of  the 
bright  light,  yet  was  the  world  glad  because 
all  things  new  that  the  glimmer  was  of  day 
and  not  of  night.  Lo  you,  an  image  of  the 
times  to  betide  the  hope  of  the  Fellowship 
of  Men.  Yet  forsooth,  it  may  well  be  that 
this  bright  day  of  summer  which  is  now 
dawning  upon  us  is  no  image  of  the  begin- 
ning of  the  day  that  shall  be ;  but  rather 
shall  that  day-dawn  be  cold  and  grey  and 
surly ;  and  yet  by  its  light  shall  men  see 
things  as  they  verily  are,  and  no  longer 
enchanted  by  the  gleam  of  the  moon  and  the 
glamour  of  the  dreamtide.  By  such  grey 
light  shall  wise  men  and  valiant  souls  see  the 
remedy,  and  deal  with  it,  a  real  thing  that 
may  be  touched  and  handled,  and  no  glory 
of  the  heavens  to  be  worshipped  from  afar 
off.  And  what  shall  it  be,  as  I  told  thee 
before,  save  that  men  shall  be  determined  to 
be  free ;  yea,  free  as  thou  wouldst  have 
them,  when  thine  hope  rises  the  highest,  and 

124 


A    DREAM    OF  JOHN    BALL 

thou  art  thinking  not  of  the  king's  uncles, 
and  poll-groat  bailiffs,  and  the  villeinage  of 
Essex,  but  of  the  end  of  all,  when  men  shall 
have  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  the  fruits  of 
their  toil  thereon,  without  money  and  without 
price.  The  time  shall  come,  John  Ball,  when 
that  dream  of  thine  that  this  shall  one  day 
be,  shall  be  a  thing  that  men  shall  talk  of 
soberly,  and  as  a  thing  soon  to  come  about, 
as  even  with  thee  they  talk  of  the  villeins 
becoming  tenants  paying  their  lord  quit-rent ; 
therefore,  hast  thou  done  well  to  hope  it; 
and,  if  thou  heedest  this  also,  as  I  suppose 
thou  heedest  it  little,  thy  name  shall  abide  by 
thy  hope  in  those  days  to  come,  and  thou 
shall  not  be  forgotten.' 

I  heard  his  voice  come  out  of  the  twilight, 
scarcely  seeing  him,  though  now  the  light 
was  growing  fast,  as  he  said: 

*  Brother,  thou  givest  me  heart  again ;  yet 
since  now  I  wot  well  that  thou  art  a  sending 
from  far-off  times  and  far-off  things ;  tell 
thou,  if  thou  mayest,  to  a  man  who  is  going 
to  his  death  how  this  shall  come  about.' 

'  Only  this  may  I  tell  thee,'  said  I ;  '  to 
thee,  when  thou  didst  try  to  conceive  of 
them,  the  ways  of  the  days  to  come  seemed 
follies  scarce  to  be  thought  of;  yet  shall 
they  come  to  be  familiar  things,  and  an  order 
by  which  every  man  liveth,  ill  as  he  liveth,  so 

'25 


A    DREAM   OF  JOHN    BALL 

that  men  shall  deem  of  them,  that  thus  it 
hath  been  since  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
and  that  thus  it  shall  be  while  the  world 
endureth;  and  in  this  wise  so  shall  they 
be  thought  of  a  long  while ;  and  the  com- 
plaint of  the  poor  the  rich  man  shall  heed, 
even  as  much  and  no  more  as  he  who 
lieth  in  pleasure  under  the  lime-trees  in  the 
summer  heedeth  the  murmur  of  his  toiling 
bees.  Yet  in  time  shall  this  also  grow  old, 
and  doubt  shall  creep  in,  because  men  shall 
scarce  be  able  to  live  by  that  order,  and  the 
complaint  of  the  poor  shall  be  hearkened,  no 
longer  as  a  tale  not  utterly  grievous,  but  as  a 
threat  of  ruin,  and  a  fear.  Then  shall  those 
things,  which  to  thee  seem  follies,  and  to  the 
men  between  thee  and  me  mere  wisdom  and 
the  bond  of  stability,  seem  follies  once  again ; 
yet,  whereas  men  have  so  long  lived  by 
them,  they  shall  cling  to  them  yet  from 
blindness  and  from  fear ;  and  those  that  see, 
and  that  have  thus  much  conquered  fear 
that  they  are  furthering  the  real  time  that 
cometh  and  not  the  dream  that  faileth,  these 
men  shall  the  blind  and  the  fearful  mock  and 
missay,  and  torment  and  murder;  and  great 
and  grievous  shall  be  the  strife  in  those 
days,  and  many  the  failures  of  the  wise, 
and  too  oft  sore  shall  be  the  despair  of  the 
valiant;  and    back-sliding,  and  doubt,  and 

126 


A   DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

contest  between  friends  and  fellows  lacking 
time  in  the  hubbub  to  understand  each  other, 
shall  grieve  many  hearts  and  hinder  the  Host 
of  the  Fellowship :  yet  shall  all  bring  about 
the  end,  till  thy  deeming  of  folly  and  ours 
shall  be  one,  and  thy  hope  and  our  hope  ; 
and  then  —  the  Day  will  have  come.' 

Once  more  I  heard  the  voice  of  John  Ball : 
*  Now,  brother,  I  say  farewell ;  for  now  verily 
hath  the  Day  of  the  Earth  come,  and  thou 
and  I  are  lonely  of  each  other  again ;  thou 
hast  been  a  dream  to  me  as  I  to  thee,  and 
sorry  and  glad  have  we  made  each  other,  as 
tales  of  old  time  and  the  longing  of  times  to 
come  shall  ever  make  men  to  be.  I  go  to 
life  and  to  death,  and  leave  thee  ;  and  scarce 
do  I  know  whether  to  wish  thee  some  dream 
of  the  days  beyond  thine  to  tell  what  shall 
be,  as  thou  hast  told  me,  for  I  know  not  if 
that  shall  help  or  hinder  thee ;  but  since  we 
have  been  kind  and  very  friends,  I  will  not 
leave  thee  without  a  wish  of  good-will,  so  at 
least  I  wish  thee  what  thou  thyself  wishest 
for  thyself,  and  that  is  hopeful  strife,  and 
blameless  peace,  which  is  to  say  in  one  word, 
life.     Farewell,  friend.' 

For  some  little  time,  although  I  had 
known  that  the  daylight  was  growing  and 
what  was  around  me,  I  had  scarce  seen  the 
things  I  had  before  noted  so  keenly ;  but  now 


127 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

in  a  flash  I  saw  all  —  the  east  crimson  with 
sunrise  through  the  white  window  on  my 
right  hand ;  the  richly-carved  stalls,  and 
gilded  screen  work,  the  pictures  on  the 
walls,  the  loveliness  of  the  faultless  colour 
of  the  mosaic  window  lights,the  altar  and  the 
red  light  over  it  looking  strange  in  the  day- 
light, and  the  biers  with  the  hidden  dead  men 
upon  them  that  lay  before  the  high  altar.  A 
great  pain  filled  my  heart  at  the  sight  of  all 
that  beauty,  and  withal  I  heard  quick  steps 
coming  up  the  paved  church-path  to  the 
porch,  and  the  loud  whistle  of  a  sweet  old 
tune  therewith;  then  the  footsteps  stopped 
at  the  door;  I  heard  the  latch  rattle,  and 
knew  that  Will  Green's  hand  was  on  the 
ring  of  it 

Then  I  strove  to  rise  up,  but  fell  back 
again;  a  white  light,  empty  of  all  sights, 
broke  upon  me  for  a  moment,  and  lo ! 
behold,  I  was  lying  in  my  familiar  bed,  the 
south-westerly  gale  rattling  the  Venetian 
blinds  and  making  their  hold-fasts  squeak. 

I  got  up  presently,  and  going  to  the  win- 
dow looked  out  on  the  winter  morning;  the 
river  was  before  me  broad  between  outer 
bank  and  bank,  but  it  was  nearly  dead  ebb, 
and  there  was  a  wide  space  of  mud  on  each 
side  of  the  hurrying  stream,  driven  on  the 
faster  as  it  seemed  by  the  push  of  the  south- 


128 


A    DREAM   OF   JOHN    BALL 

west  wind.  On  the  other  side  of  the  water 
the  few  willow-trees  left  us  by  the  Thames 
Conservancy  looked  doubtfully  alive  against 
the  bleak  sky  and  the  row  of  wretched-look- 
ing blue-slated  houses,  although,  by  the  way, 
the  latter  were  the  backs  of  a  sort  of  street 
of  '  villas '  and  not  a  slum ;  the  road  in  front 
of  the  house  was  sooty  and  muddy  at  once, 
and  in  the  air  was  that  sense  of  dirty  discom- 
fort which  one  is  never  quit  of  in  London. 
The  morning  was  harsh  too,  and  though  the 
wind  was  from  the  south-west  it  was  as  cold 
as  a  north  wind :  and  yet  amidst  it  all,  I 
thought  of  the  corner  of  the  next  bight  of 
the  river  which  I  could  not  quite  see  from 
where  I  was,  but  over  which  one  can  see 
clear  of  houses  and  into  Richmond  Park, 
looking  like  the  open  country ;  and  dirty  as 
the  river  was,  and  harsh  as  was  the  January 
wind,  they  seemed  to  woo  me  toward  the 
country  side,  where  away  from  the  miseries 
of  the  '  Great  Wen '  I  might  of  my  own  will 
carry  on  a  day-dream  of  the  friends  I  had 
made  in  the  dream  of  the  night  and  against 
my  will. 

But  as  I  turned  away  shivering  and  down- 
hearted, on  a  sudden  came  the  frightful  noise 
of  the  '  hooters,'  one  after  the  other,  that  call 
the  workmen  to  the  factories,  this  one  the 
after-breakfast  one,  more  by  token.     So   I 

129 


A  DREAM  OF  JOHN   BALL 

grinned  surlily,  and  dressed  and  got  ready 
for  my  day's  '  work'  as  I  call  it,  but  which 
many  a  man  besides  John  Ruskin  ( though 
not  many  in  his  position )  would  call '  play.' 


A  KING'S  LESSON 


A   KING'S   LESSON 

IT  is  told  of  Matthias  Corvinus,  king  of 
Hungary  —  the  Alfred  the  Great  of  his 
time  and  people  —  that  he  once  heard  (once 
only  ?)  that  some  (only  some,  my  lad  ?)  of  his 
peasants  were  over-worked  and  under-fed. 
So  he  sent  for  his  Council,  and  bade  come 
thereto  also  some  of  the  mayors  of  the 
good  towns,  and  some  of  the  lords  of  land 
and  their  bailiffs,  and  asked  them  of  the 
truth  thereof ;  and  in  diverse  ways  they  all 
told  one  and  the  same  tale,  how  the  peasant 
carles  were  stout  and  well  able  to  work  and 
had  enough  and  to  spare  of  meat  and  drink, 
seeing  that  they  were  but  churls ;  and  how  if 
they  worked  not  at  the  least  as  hard  as  they 
did,  it  would  be  ill  for  them  and  ill  for  their 
lords  ;  for  that  the  more  the  churl  hath  the 
more  he  asketh  ;  and  that  when  he  knoweth 
wealth,  he  knoweth  the  lack  of  it  also,  as 
it  fared  with  our  first  parents  in  the  Garden 
of  God.  The  King  sat  and  said  but  little 
while  they  spake,  but  he  misdoubted  them 
that  they  were  liars.  So  the  Council  brake 
up  with  nothing  done;  but  the  King  took  the 

»33 


A  king's  lesson 

matter  to  heart,  being,  as  kings  go,  a  just 
man,  besides  being  more  valiant  than  they 
mostly  were,  even  in  the  old  feudal  time.  So 
within  two  or  three  days,  says  the  tale,  he 
called  together  such  lords  and  councillors  as 
he  deemed  fittest,  and  bade  busk  them  for  a 
ride ;  and  when  they  were  ready  he  and  they 
set  out,  over  rough  and  smooth,  decked  out 
in  all  the  glory  of  attire  which  was  the  wont 
of  those  days.  Thus  they  rode  till  they 
came  to  some  village  or  thorpe  of  the  peas- 
ant folk,  and  through  it  to  the  vineyards 
where  men  were  working  on  the  sunny 
southern  slopes  that  went  up  from  the  river : 
my  tale  does  not  say  whether  that  were 
Theiss,  or  Donau,  or  what  river.  Well,  I 
judge  it  was  late  spring  or  early  summer,  and 
the  vines  but  just  beginning  to  show  their 
grapes ;  for  the  vintage  is  late  in  those  lands, 
and  some  of  the  grapes  are  not  gathered  till 
the  first  frosts  have  touched  them,  whereby 
the  wine  made  from  them  is  the  stronger  and 
sweeter.  Anyhow  there  were  the  peasants, 
men  and  women,  boys  and  young  maidens, 
toiling  and  swinking;  some  hoeing  between 
the  vine-rows,  some  bearing  baskets  of  dung 
up  the  steep  slopes,  some  in  one  way,  some 
in  another,  labouring  for  the  fruit  they  should 
never  eat,  and  the  wine  they  should  never 
drink.     Thereto  turned  the  King  and  got  off 

134 


A  king's  lesson 

his  horse  and  began  to  climb  up  the  stony 
ridges  of  the  vineyard,  and  his  lords  in  like 
manner  followed  him,  wondering  in  their 
hearts  what  was  toward ;  but  to  the  one  who 
was  following  next  after  him  he  turned  about 
and  said  with  a  smile,  '  Yea,  lords,  this  is  a 
new  game  we  are  playing  to-day,  and  a  new 
knowledge  will  come  from  it.'  And  the  lord 
smiled,  but  somewhat  sourly. 

As  for  the  peasants,  great  was  their  fear  of 
those  gay  and  golden  lords.  I  judge  that 
they  did  not  know  the  King,  since  it  was  little 
likely  that  any  one  of  them  had  seen  his 
face  ;  and  they  knew  of  him  but  as  the  Great 
Father,  the  mighty  warrior  who  kept  the 
Turk  from  harrying  their  thorpe.  Though, 
forsooth,  little  matter  was  it  to  any  man 
there  whether  Turk  or  Magyar  was  their 
over-lord,  since  to  one  master  or  another 
they  had  to  pay  the  due  tale  of  labouring 
days  in  the  year,  and  hard  was  the  livelihood 
that  they  earned  for  themselves  on  the  days 
when  they  worked  for  themselves  and  their 
wives  and  children. 

Well,  belike  they  knew  not  the  King;  but 
amidst  those  rich  lords  they  saw  and  knew 
their  own  lord,  and  of  him  they  were  sore 
afraid.  But  nought  it  availed  them  to  flee 
away  from  those  strong  men  and  strong 
horses  —  they   who   had   been   toiling   from 

»3S 


A   KING'S   LESSON 

before  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  now  it 
wanted  little  more  than  an  hour  of  noon : 
besides,  with  the  King  and  lords  was  a  guard 
of  crossbowmen,  who  were  left  the  other  side 
of  the  vineyard  wall,  —  keen-eyed  Italians  of 
the  mountains,  straight  shooters  of  the  bolt. 
So  the  poor  folk  fled  not ;  nay  they  made  as 
if  all  this  were  none  of  their  business,  and 
went  on  with  their  work.  For  indeed  each 
man  said  to  himself,  '  If  I  be  the  one  that  is 
not  slain,  to-morrow  I  shall  lack  bread  if  I 
do  not  work  my  hardest  to-day ;  and  maybe 
I  shall  be  headman  if  some  of  these  be  slain 
and  I  live.' 

Now  comes  the  King  amongst  them  and 
says :  '  Good  fellows,  which  of  you  is  the 
headman .'' ' 

Spake  a  man,  sturdy  and  sunburnt,  well  on 
in  years  and  grizzled :  '  I  am  the  headman, 
lord.' 

'  Give  me  thy  hoe,  then,'  says  the  King ; 
'for  now  shall  I  order  this  matter  myself, 
since  these  lords  desire  a  new  game,  and  are 
fain  to  work  under  me  at  vine-dressing.  But 
do  thou  stand  by  me  and  set  me  right  if  I 
order  them  wrong:  but  the  rest  of  you  go 
play  I ' 

The  carle  knew  not  what  to  think,  and  let 
the  King  stand  with  his  hand  stretched  out, 
while  he  looked  askance  at  his  own  lord  and 

136 


A    KING'S   LESSON 

baron,  who  wagged  his  head  at  him  grimly 
as  one  who  says,  '  Do  it,  dog ! ' 

Then  the  carle  lets  the  hoe  come  into  the 
King's  hand;  and  the  King  falls  to,  and 
orders  his  lords  for  vine-dressing,  to  each  his 
due  share  of  the  work  :  and  whiles  the  carle 
said  yea  and  whiles  nay  to  his  ordering. 
And  then  ye  should  have  seen  velvet  cloaks 
cast  off,  and  mantles  of  fine  Flemish  scarlet 
go  to  the  dusty  earth  ;  as  the  lords  and 
knights  busked  them  to  the  work. 

So  they  buckled  to ;  and  to  most  of  them 
it  seemed  good  game  to  play  at  vine-dressing. 
But  one  there  was  who,  when  his  scarlet 
cloak  was  off,  stood  up  in  a  doublet  of 
glorious  Persian  web  of  gold  and  silk,  such 
as  men  make  not  now,  worth  a  hundred 
florins  the  Bremen  ell.  Unto  him  the  King 
with  no  smile  on  his  face  gave  the  job  of 
toing  and  froing  up  and  down  the  hill  with 
the  biggest  and  the  frailest  dung-basket  that 
there  was ;  and  thereat  the  silken  lord 
screwed  up  a  grin,  that  was  sport  to  see,  and 
all  the  lords  laughed ;  and  as  he  turned 
away  he  said,  yet  so  that  none  heard  him, 
'  Do  I  serve  this  son's  son  of  a  whore  that 
he  should  bid  me  carry  dung  ? '  For  you 
must  know  that  the  King's  father,  John 
Hunyad,  one  of  the  great  warriors  of  the 
world,  the  Hammer  of  the  Turks,  was  not 

137 


A  king's  lesson 

gotten  in  wedlock,  though  he  were  a  King's 
son. 

Well,  they  sped  the  work  bravely  for 
a  while,  and  loud  was  the  laughter  as  the 
hoes  smote  the  earth  and  the  flint  stones 
tinkled  and  the  cloud  of  dust  rose  up;  the 
brocaded  dung-bearer  went  up  and  down. 
Cursing  and  swearing  by  the  White  God  and 
the  Black ;  and  one  would  say  to  another, 
*  See  ye  how  gentle  blood  outgoes  churls' 
blood,  even  when  the  gentle  does  the  churl's 
work :  these  lazy  loons  smote  but  one  stroke 
to  our  three.'  But  the  King,  who  worked  no 
worse  than  any,  laughed  not  at  all ;  and  mean- 
while the  poor  folk  stood  by,  not  daring  to 
speak  a  word  one  to  the  other ;  for  they  were 
still  sore  afraid,  not  now  of  being  slain  on 
the  spot,  but  this  rather  was  in  their  hearts : 
'  These  great  and  strong  lords  and  knights 
have  come  to  see  what  work  a  man  may  do 
without  dying :  if  we  are  to  have  yet  more 
days  added  to  our  year's  tale  of  lords' 
labour,  then  are  we  lost  without  remedy.' 
And  their  hearts  sank  within  them. 

So  sped  the  work ;  and  the  sun  rose  yet 
higher  in  the  heavens,  and  it  was  noon  and 
more.  And  now  there  was  no  more  laughter 
among  those  toiling  lords,  and  the  strokes  of 
the  hoe  and  mattock  came  far  slower,  while 
the  dung-bearer  sat  down  at  the  bottom  of 

138 


A    KING'S   LESSON 

the  hill  and  looked  out  on  the  river ;  but  the 
King  yet  worked  on  doggedly,  so  for  shame 
the  other  lords  yet  kept  at  it.  Till  at  last 
the  next  man  to  the  king  let  his  hoe  drop 
with  a  clatter,  and  swore  a  great  oath.  Now 
he  was  a  strong  black-bearded  man  in  the 
prime  of  life,  a  valiant  captain  of  that  famous 
Black  Band  that  had  so  often  rent  the  Turk- 
ish array;  and  the  King  loved  him  for  his 
sturdy  valour ;  so  he  says  to  him,  ♦  Is  aught 
wrong.  Captain .'  * 

'  Nay,  lord,'  says  he,  '  ask  the  headman 
carle  yonder  what  ails  us.' 

♦  Headman,'  says  the  King,  '  what  ails 
these  strong  knights  ?  Have  I  ordered  them 
wrongly  ? ' 

'  Nay,  but  shirking  ails  them,  lord,'  says 
he,  '  for  they  are  weary  ;  and  no  wonder,  for 
they  have  been  playing  hard,  and  are  of 
gentle  blood.' 

'  Is  that  so,  lords,'  says  the  King,  '  that  ye 
are  weary  already .''  * 

Then  the  rest  hung  their  heads  and  said 
nought,  all  save  that  captain  of  war ;  and  he 
said,  being  a  bold  man  and  no  liar:  '  King,  I 
see  what  thou  wouldst  be  at  ;  thou  hast 
brought  us  here  to  preach  us  a  sermon  from 
that  Plato  of  thine ;  and  to  say  sooth,  so  that 
I  may  swink  no  more,  and  go  eat  my  dinner, 
now  preach  thy  worst !     Nay,  if  thou  wilt  be 

>39 


A    KING'S   LESSON 

priest  I  will  be  thy  deacon.  Wilt  thou  that 
I  ask  this  labouring  carie  a  thing  or  two  ? ' 

'  Yea,'  said  the  King.  And  there  came,  as 
it  were,  a  cloud  of  thought  over  his  face. 

Then  the  captain  straddled  his  legs  and 
looked  big,  and  said  to  the  carle  :  'Good  fel- 
low, how  long  have  we  been  working  here  ? ' 

•  Two  hours  or  thereabout,  judging  by  the 
sun  above  us,'  says  he. 

'  And  how  much  of  thy  work  have  we  done 
in  that  while  .-' '  says  the  captain,  and  winks 
his  eye  at  him  withal. 

'  Lord,'  says  the  carle,  grinning  a  little 
despite  himself, '  be  not  wroth  with  my  word. 
In  the  first  half-hour  ye  did  five-and-forty 
minutes'  work  of  ours,  and  in  the  next  half- 
hour  scant  a  thirty  minutes'  work,  and  the 
third  half-hour  a  fifteen  minutes'  work,  and 
in  the  fourth  half-hour  two  minutes'  work.' 
The  grin  now  had  faded  from  his  face,  but  a 
gleam  came  into  his  eyes  as  he  said :  '  And 
now,  as  I  suppose,  your  day's  work  is  done, 
and  ye  will  go  to  your  dinner,  and  eat  the 
sweet  and  drink  the  strong;  and  we  shall 
eat  a  little  rye-bread,  and  then  be  working 
here  till  after  the  sun  has  set  and  the  moon 
has  begun  to  cast  shadows.  Now  for  you, 
I  wot  not  how  ye  shall  sleep  nor  where,  nor 
what  white  body  ye  shall  hold  in  your  arms 
while  the  night  flits  and  the  stars  shine ;  but 

#  140 


A    KING'S   LESSON 

for  US,  while  the  stars  yet  shine,  shall  we  be 
at  it  again,  and  bethink  ye  for  what !  I  know 
not  what  game  and  play  ye  shall  be  devising 
for  to-morrow  as  ye  ride  back  home ;  but  for 
us  when  we  come  back  here  to-morrow,  it 
shall  be  as  if  there  had  been  no  yesterday 
and  nothing  done  therein,  and  that  work  of 
that  to-day  shall  be  nought  to  us  also,  for  we 
shall  win  no  respite  from  our  toil  thereby, 
and  the  morrow  of  to-morrow  will  all  be  to 
begin  again  once  more,  and  so  on  and  on  till 
no  to-morrow  abideth  us.  Therefore,  if  ye 
are  thinking  to  lay  some  new  tax  or  tale 
upon  us,  think  twice  of  it,  for  we  may  not 
bear  it.  And  all  this  I  say  with  the  less  fear, 
because  I  perceive  this  man  here  beside  me, 
in  the  black  velvet  jerkin  and  the  gold  chain 
on  his  neck,  is  the  King ;  nor  do  I  think  he 
will  slay  me  for  my  word  since  he  hath  so 
many  a  Turk  before  him  and  his  mighty 
sword ! ' 

Then  said  the  captain  :  '  Shall  I  smite  the 
man,  O  king  ?  or  hath  he  preached  thy  ser- 
mon for  thee .' ' 

'  Smite  not,  for  he  hath  preached  it,'  said 
the  King.  '  Hearken  to  the  carle's  sermon, 
lords  and  councillors  of  mine !  Yet  when 
another  hath  spoken  our  thought,  other 
thoughts  are  born  therefrom,  and  now  have 
I   another   sermon    to   preach ;    but    I   will 


141 


A    KING'S   LESSON 

refrain  me  as  now.  Let  us  dowTi  and  to  our 
dinner.' 

So  they  went,  the  King  and  his  gentles, 
and  sat  down  by  the  river  under  the  rustle  of 
the  poplars,  and  they  ate  and  drank  and 
were  merry.  And  the  King  bade  bear  up 
the  broken  meats  to  the  vine-dressers,  and  a 
good  draught  of  the  archer's  wine,  and  to  the 
headman  he  gave  a  broad  gold  piece,  and  to 
each  man  three  silver  pennies.  But  when 
the  poor  folk  had  all  that  under  their  hands, 
it  was  to  them  as  though  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  had  come  down  to  earth. 

In  the  cool  of  the  evening  home  rode  the 
King  and  his  lords.  The  King  was  dis- 
traught and  silent;  but  at  last  the  captain, 
who  rode  beside  him,  said  to  him  :  '  Preach 
me  now  thine  after-sermon,  O  king ! ' 

•  I  think  thou  knowest  it  already,'  said  the 
king,  '  else  hadst  thou  not  spoken  in  such 
wise  to  the  carle ;  but  tell  me  what  is  thy 
craft  and  the  craft  of  all  these,  whereby  ye 
live,  as  the  potter  by  making  pots,  and  so 
forth  ? ' 

Said  the  captain :  '  As  the  potter  lives  by 
making  pots,  so  we  live  by  robbing  the  poor.' 

Again  said  the  King  :  '  And  my  trade .' ' 

Said  he,  '  Thy  trade  is  to  be  a  king  of  such 
thieves,  yet  no  worser  than  the  rest.' 

The  King  laughed. 


14; 


A    KING'S   LESSON 

'  Bear  that  in  mind,'  said  he,  '  and  then 
shall  I  tell  thee  my  thought  while  yonder 
carle  spake.  '  Carle,'  I  thought, '  were  I  thou 
or  such  as  thou,  then  would  I  take  in  my 
hand  a  sword  or  a  spear,  or  were  it  only 
a  hedge-stake,  and  bid  others  do  the  like, 
and  forth  would  we  go;  and  since  we  would 
be  so  many,  and  with  nought  to  lose  save  a 
miserable  life,  we  would  do  battle  and  pre- 
vail, and  make  an  end  of  the  ciaft  of  kings, 
and  of  lords  and  of  usurers,  and  there  should 
be  but  one  craft  in  the  world,  to  wit,  to  work 
merrily  for  ourselves  and  to  live  merrily 
thereby.' 

Said  the  captain  :  '  This  then  is  thy  ser- 
mon.    Who  will  heed  it  if  thou  preach  it  ? ' 

Said  the  King :  '  They  who  will  take  the 
mad  king  and  put  him  in  a  king's  madhouse, 
therefore  do  I  forbear  to  preach  it.  Yet  it 
shall  be  preached.' 

'  And  not  heeded,'  said  the  captain,  '  save 
by  those  who  head  and  hang  the  setters 
forth  of  new  things  that  are  good  for  the. 
world.  Our  trade  is  safe  for  many  and  many 
a  generation. ' 

And  therewith  they  came  to  the  King's 
palace,  and  they  ate  and  drank  and  slept, 
and  the  world  went  on  its  ways. 


PRINTED  BY 

SMITH  &•  SALE 

PORTLAND 

tMAINE 


University  of  California 

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Bp?t 


OCT  0  7 
MAY  3  1 199! 


•7    1001 


